ISBN: 978-1-905082-42-1 reviews Trees Cicely Herbert braves the Treetop Walkway at Kew Gardens and visits the Corot to Monet Exhibition.
The Council of the London Borough of Camden has many failings, and one shining virtue – it has an excellent record on the environment and a past history of protecting trees. ‘Developers’, of whom there are many in the area, will often regard a tree as a mere inconvenience, an unwanted nuisance, to be dispensed with as soon as possible, and replaced by concrete, shopping centres and flyovers. My own small back garden is overhung by the branches of a great old ash tree, which stands on the ancient route to Hampstead Heath (another blessedly protected space). I like to imagine that the poet, John Keats, who lived close by, might have known and walked beneath the ash.
Another leafy haven, Kew Gardens, in south London, lies under the direct flight path of international planes approaching Heathrow Airport. One cannot fail to be aware of their continuous looming presence, and the whine of their engines as, at three minute intervals, their pilots prepare to land. In 2008, a ‘Treetop Walkway’ was installed in Kew Gardens. This ‘rhizotron’ has been ‘designed on a Fibonacci numerical sequence often found in nature’s growth patterns.’ Visitors are invited to climb steps 18 metres high, and then, like gods, to look down on the moving canopy of sweet chestnut trees, limes and oaks. At the time of its installation, the secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, wrote that ‘the walkway is a reminder of the need to conserve the world’s trees and forests which hold 80% of all remaining land-based wild life.’ A visit to the treetop walkway is a moving and thought-provoking experience, and one highly recommended to all those with a head for heights, and for anyone with a concern for the future of our planet, who understands the importance of trees for our very existence and for humanity’s survival.
The French artist Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, was born in France in 1796. The son of a draper, Corot lived as a child in Rouen. He drew and painted trees, almost obsessively, all his life. I own a small picture inherited from my mother, which I have loved since childhood.
The sketch is of a group of trees, under which a figure can be faintly discerned, and in the distance, as in a dream, one can make out a classical temple, which could be Italian. On the back of the picture’s frame my grandmother has written, in a firm hand, ‘Proof before letters of etching by Corot GENUINE’ – underlining the word ‘genuine’ twice. And who is to say that Granny was wrong? Apparently Corot was a generous artist, prepared to sign almost anything presented to him, who ‘produced 3000 etchings, of which 10,000 are in America.’ Whatever the truth, I prize the little picture.
Corot’s work plays a central part in an exhibition currently showing at London’s National Gallery, entitled Corot to Monet. All the pictures on display belong to the gallery itself and entry is free. The exhibition covers the period when, for the first time, artists began to leave their studios and paint nature in the open air. The climax of the show comes as something of a surprise, because it is so unlike anything else to be seen there. Four enormous paintings, apparently completed by Corot in the space of a week, are entitled The Four Times of Day.
These pictures were, apparently, at one time owned by the pre-Raphaelite artist Lord Leighton. Corot’s work has always been admired and loved by other painters, and indeed by poets, and that, surely, is the greatest accolade for any artist.
A short and fairly informative film accompanies the show, and can be viewed in comfort as a respite for the footsore. This is an intimate and pleasurable exhibition, where, unlike at many ‘blockbusters’ of recent years, it is possible to study each picture in an atmosphere of calm.
It is, in short, a delight, and I left the National Gallery feeling profoundly grateful to all those who honour, protect, and safeguard our rich heritage of trees.
The Corot to Monet Exhibition is on at the National Gallery in London until 20th September 2009. The Treetop Walkway is in Kew Gardens, London, and included in the admission price.
Cicely Herbert is one of the trio who founded and continue to run Poems on the Underground. She is a member of SOF.