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David Hockney, Early November Tunnel, 2006, private collection. Artist’s website.
As Autumn slowly begins, delve with us into paintings that center the season. Along the way discover other DailyArt Magazine articles to get you excited for those red and golden hues.
Autumn Leaves and Trees
Georgia O’Keeffe, Autumn Leaves, 1924, private collection. WikiArt.
The most evocative part of Autumn is the metamorphosing color of trees. David Hockney regularly returns to paint the same scene throughout the changing year. Below is a taste of Hockney’s vision of the season, evoking the excitement when the leaves start to turn golden and the joy at the sound of their crunch towards the end of Autumn.
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David Hockney, Autumn Leaves, 2008, private collection. Artist’s website.
David Hockney, Early November Tunnel, 2006, private collection. Artist’s website.
David Hockney, Woldgate Woods, 2006, private collection. Artist’s website.
Autumn Leaves
Green scene of a forest floor with an autumnal branch reaching downwards.
Early November Tunnel
A Yorkshire scene of a dirt track lined by hedgerows and trees. The leaves are turning golden brown.
Woldgate woods
A woodland scene with bare trees and fallen autumn leaves.
On the other side of the globe, Japan celebrates Autumn with the magnificent red of the maple tree in particular. See how the explosive red is matched with a fierce river? Or how the delicate shape of the leaf shows of the red tones?
Gensou Okuda, Oirase Ravine (Autumn), 1983, Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan.
Higashiyama Kaii, Autumn Colors, 1986, Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan.
More stunning leaves to wade through:
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John Everett Millais, Autumn Leaves, 1855, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.
Childe Hassam, Autumn Boulevard, Paris, private collection. Christie’s.
Gustav Klimt, Birch Forest I, 1902, private collection. WikiArt.
Autumn Leaves
Four girls gather dried autumn leaves into a pyramid, ready for a bonfire. Discover more about this painting here.
Autumn Boulevard
In this wintery painting by American Impressionist, Frederick Childe Hassam, a woman gathers autumnal leaves on a Parisian boulevard.
Birch Forest I
A scene in a Birch forest where the fiery fallen leaves shine out amongst the grey straight lines of the Birch trees.
Autumnal Flowers
As well as the beautiful maple, discover delicate Japanese autumnal flowers, such as those in front of a full moon by Utagawa Hiroshige ( 歌川 広重), who is known as the last master of woodblock printing, or those in the compositional arrangement by Sakai Hōitsu. You can see more autumnal Japanese works in this article. The waka poem in Kenzan’s painting reads:
A thousand flower varieties disperse their collective charms of scent and color through the field’s dew.
Autumn Flowerbaskets, 18th century.
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Utagawa Hiroshige, Autumn flowers in front of full moon, 1853, private collection. WikiArt.
Sakai Hōitsu, Autumn Plants and Quail, 19th century, Yamatane Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan.
Ogata Kenzan, Autumn Flowerbaskets, 18th century, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan.
Paul Klee, Herbstblumen Stilleben (Still life with autumn flowers), 1925, private collection. WikiArt.
Autumn flowers in front of full moon
On a midnight blue, circular background there is a full moon. In front, delicate foliage is seen.
Autumn Plants and Quail
A golden scene with a floating moon, reeds, patrinia, dayflowers and plump quail feature.
Autumn Flowerbaskets
Three black woven baskets hold autumn grasses and flowers and a waka poem is written across.
Herbstblumen Stilleben
In his unique style, Paul Klee paints a vase of autumn flowers. Read more about Paul Klee’s autumn paintings here.
Autumn Harvest
Apples, pumpkins, chestnuts… The fruit and flavors of the season feature abundantly in art. See for yourself:
Roman School, Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge, c. 1605-1610, private collection, on loan to Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, USA. Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
Paolo Barbieri, Basket of Chestnuts, Cheese, Mushroom and Fruit, c. 1640, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Be sure to explore our article on autumnal still lifes!
Vast Autumn Landscapes
Trot across the globe with this abundant selection of autumnal landscapes from a variety of countries.
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Isaac Levitan, Golden Autumn, Slobodka, 1889, The State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Lin Fengmian, Autumn Landscape, 1977-8, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong.
Vincent van Gogh, Appel Orchard with Lime Tree Behind the Mensingh Inn in Zweeloo (Coevorden), 1881, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Edward Hopper, October on Cape Cod, 1946, private collection. The Art Wolf.
Egon Schiele, Four Trees, 1917, Belvedere, Vienna, Austria.
Claude Monet, Autumn Effects at Argenteuil, 1873, Courtauld Gallery, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK.
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn on the Hudson, c. 1860, De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Golden Autumn, Slobodka
Isaac Levitan, a master of landscapes often returns to the sorrowful yet lively Russian Autumn. A hedge divides peasant allotments and a birch tree shows off its contrastingly bright foliage in the center.
Autumn Landscape
An expressive scene of Hong Kong’s autumnal countryside with bold brush strokes and bright colors. Bright trees surround a small village and there are dark mountains in the background.
Appel Orchard with Lime Tree Behind the Mensingh Inn in Zweeloo (Coevorden)
A pen and ink drawing of an orchard, depicting a gloomy Autumn afternoon.
October on Cape Cod
One of Hopper’s final paintings depicting his visit to Cape Cod, mainland Massachusetts. A tranquil white house, with its grey garage, is in isolation. The trees behind are still green but the tone of the climate shows the burgeoning change of seasons. Find out more about this work here.
Four Trees
Four autumn trees, with the central tree losing its leaves, sit amid a hilly and dark Austrian hilly landscape.
Autumn Effects at Argenteuil
A mass of golden leaves dominate the top left of this painting, and are reflected in the expanse of water at its center. A town can be seen in the distance and there is a tree, still green, featuring on the far right. Read more about Monet’s exploration of the Argenteuil river here.
Autumn on the Hudson
A golden evening scene showing a river surrounded by trees and mountains. Cows paddle in the center while a boy and his dog look on. Read about this artist here.
Li Keran, Red Over the Mountains as if the Forests are Dyed, 1963, China Modern Contemporary Art, Beijing, China.
Two great masters of traditional 20th-century Chinese painting, Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong, are the tutors of Li Keran. This painting shows a river and a flow of bright red trees cascading down a mountain. It takes inspiration from the epic poem Qin Yuan Chun-Changhsa by Mao. The powerful panoramic image reflects the pride of the period that saw rapid development in the country.
Helmer Osslund, Autumn, 1907, National Museum, Stockholm, Sweden.
In contrast to the vivid scene of southern China this depiction of Abisko in Sweden features a totally still mountain lake. The birches at the front of the image have shed most of their golden leaves. Which vision of this magnificent season do you prefer?
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Isla graduated with a first class BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge in 2018. Her specialisms were Art, Archaeology and the Roman poet Ovid. After graduation she spent a year in Japan, where she interned as a curatorial assistant at the Fukuoka Asian Arts Museum. Currently, Isla is studying for a History of Art MA in London (part-time). Professionally (full-time) Isla is based in Kent as a director of an educational charity and a teacher.
Melanie Demmer
Melanie is a freelance editor, proofreader, and writer within humanities fields. Follow her on Twitter @melaniesdemmer.
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