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Artist: Sir Alfred East (English,1844 - 1913)
Title: In the Cotswolds
Medium: Antique color print on wove paper after the original oil painting.
Year: 1909
Signature: Signed in the plate, bottom right.
Condition: Excellent
Dimensions: Image Size 4 5/8 x 5 3/4 inches.
Framed dimensions: Approximately 14 x 15 inches.
Framing: This piece has been professionally matted and framed using all new materials.
Additional notes:
This is not a modern print. This work is more than 110 years old. The strike is crisp and the lines are sharp.
Extra Information:
The Cotswolds is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedrock of Jurassic limestone that creates a type of grassland habitat that is quarried for the golden-coloured Cotswold stone. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties: mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. The highest point is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft, just east of Cheltenham. The predominantly rural landscape contains stone-built villages, towns, stately homes and gardens featuring the local stone. A large area within the Cotswolds has been designated as a National Landscape (formerly known as Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or AONB) since 1966. The designation covers 787 square miles (2,038 km2), with boundaries roughly 25 miles across and 90 miles long, stretching south-west from just south of Stratford-upon-Avon to just south of Bath, making it the largest National Landscape area and England's third-largest protected landscape. The Cotswold local government district is within Gloucestershire. Its main town is Cirencester. In 2021, the population of the 450-square-mile district was 91,000. The much larger area referred to as the Cotswolds encompasses nearly 800 square miles. The population of the National Landscape area was 139,000 in 2016. The largest excavation of Jurassic period echinoderm fossils, including of rare and previously unknown species, occurred at a quarry in the Cotswolds in 2021. There is evidence of Neolithic settlement from burial chambers on Cotswold Edge, and there are remains of Bronze and Iron Age forts. Later the Romans built villas, such as at Chedworth, settlements such as Gloucester, and paved the Celtic path later known as Fosse Way. During the Middle Ages, thanks to the breed of sheep known as the Cotswold Lion, the Cotswolds became prosperous from the wool trade with the continent, with much of the money made from wool directed towards the building of churches. The most successful era for the wool trade was 1250–1350; much of the wool at that time was sold to Italian merchants. The area still preserves numerous large, handsome Cotswold Stone "wool churches". The affluent area in the 21st century has attracted wealthy Londoners and others who own second homes there or have chosen to retire to the Cotswolds. The term "Cotswolds National Landscape" was adopted in September 2020, using a proposed name replacement for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. All AONBs in England and Wales were re-branded as "National Landscapes" in November 2023, although (as of 2024) the legal name and designation remains "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, amending the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The term AONB is still used in this section. The Cotswolds National Landscape area (formerly the Cotwolds AONB) was originally designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1966, with an expansion on 21 December 1990 to 1,990 square kilometres. In 1991, all AONBs were measured again using modern methods, and the official area of the Cotswolds AONB was increased to 2,038 square kilometres. In 2000, the government confirmed that AONBs have the same landscape quality and status as National Parks. It is England's third-largest protected landscape, after the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks. The Cotswolds National Landscape, which is the largest in England and Wales, stretches from the border regions of South Warwickshire and Worcestershire, through West Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, and takes in parts of Wiltshire and of Bath and North East Somerset in the south. Gloucestershire County Council is responsible for sixty-three per cent of the AONB. The Cotswolds Conservation Board has the task of conserving and enhancing the AONB. Established under statute in 2004 as an independent public body, the Board carries out a range of work from securing funding for 'on the ground' conservation projects, to providing a strategic overview of the area for key decision makers, such as planning officials. The Board is funded by Natural England and the seventeen local authorities that are covered by the AONB. The Cotswolds AONB Management Plan 2018–2023 was adopted by the Board in September 2018. The landscape of the AONB is varied, including escarpment outliers, escarpments, rolling hills and valleys, enclosed limestone valleys, settled valleys, ironstone hills and valleys, high wolds and high wold valleys, high wold dip-slopes, dip-slope lowland and valleys, a Low limestone plateau, cornbrash lowlands, farmed slopes, a broad floodplain valley, a large pastoral lowland vale, a settled unwooded vale, and an unwooded vale. While the beauty of the Cotswolds AONB is intertwined with that of the villages that seem almost to grow out of the landscape, the Cotswolds were primarily designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty for the rare limestone grassland habitats as well as the old growth beech woodlands that typify the area. These habitat areas are also the last refuge for many other flora and fauna, with some so endangered that they are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Cleeve Hill, and its associated commons, is a fine example of a limestone grassland and it is one of the few locations where the Duke of Burgundy butterfly may still be found in abundance. A June 2018 report stated that the AONB receives "23 million visitors a year, the third largest of any protected landscape". Earlier that year, Environment secretary Michael Gove announced that a panel would be formed to consider making some of the AONBs into National Parks. The review will file its report in 2019. In April 2018, the Cotswolds Conservation Board had written to Natural England "requesting that consideration be given to making the Cotswolds a National Park", according to Liz Eyre, Chairman. This has led to some concern; one member of the Cotswold District Council said, "National Park designation is a significant step further and raises the prospect of key decision making powers being taken away from democratically elected councillors". In other words, Cotswold District Council would no longer have the authority to grant and refuse housing applications. Indicative of the Cotswolds' uniqueness and value is that five European Special Areas of Conservation, three national nature reserves and more than 80 Sites of Special Scientific Interest are within the Cotswolds AONB. The Cotswold Voluntary Wardens Service was established in 1968 to help conserve and enhance the area, and now has more than 300 wardens. The Cotswold Way is a long-distance footpath, just over 100 miles long, running the length of the AONB, mainly on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment with views over the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham.
Artist Biography:Sir Alfred Edward East, RA, RBA was an English painter. East was born in Kettering in Northampton shire and studied at the Glasgow School of Art. His romantic landscapes show the influence of the Barbizon school. His The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Color was published in 1906. In April 1888 he had shared an exhibition at the galleries of the Fine Art Society with T.C. Gotch and W. Ayerst Ingram, and was commissioned the following year by Marcus Huish, managing director of the Society, to spend six months in Japan to paint the landscape and the people of the country. When the exhibition of 104 paintings from this tour was held at the Fine Art Society in 1890 it was a spectacular success. East visited Spain after 1892 when he visited Algeciras at the southern end of Iberia. In 1906 he was elected president of the Royal Society of British Artists, a position he held until his death. In that year, he published his 107-page illustrated "The Art of Landscape Painting in Oil Color"; in its preface, he made the observation: "The greatest errors in landscape painting are to be found – contradictory as it may appear – not so much in the matter of technique as in the painter's attitude toward Nature". In this book he described his techniques using colors, half-tones and pencil sketches. He was awarded a Knighthood in 1910 by King Edward VII. His portrait was painted by Philip de László. The Alfred East Art Gallery in Kettering, designed by John Alfred Gotch opened on 31 July 1913. The Alfred East Gallery is Northampton shire's oldest purpose-built art gallery. East was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1899, having been a regular exhibitor since 1883 and elected to full membership in 1913. On 28 September 1913, Alfred East died at his London residence in Belsize Park. His body was taken back to Kettering and lay in state in the Art Gallery, where it was surrounded by the pictures he had presented to the town, and attracted crowds of several thousands.
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