Sally Clarke on The Great Piece of Turf by Albrecht Dürer
'Any of the works of Dürer, The Hare showing each and every hair in such great detail, or his woodcut Rhinoceros – surely a most unusual subject in 16th-century Europe? – could have been my firm favourite, but I have chosen The Great Piece of Turf, which depicts a “jungle” in miniature: a multitude of green (my favourite colour, of course) weeds and grasses and earth.
'The more I look at this image, the more I see, and the more I find myself being drawn into the mud. Sometimes, I expect to see an ant or a snail crawl out from underneath a leaf, but it remains still.'
Sally Clarke is a restaurateur and writer. Her latest book, First Put on Your Apron, is published in September.
John McEwen comments on The Great Piece of Turf
This picture was first drawn on paper with pen and ink, then painted with watercolour and gouache (body colour) — a thicker watercolour made by additions to the pigment, notably of opaque white derived from clay or barite. It was painted the year after Dürer’s equally meticulous and famous The Hare, also drawn and painted on paper by the same means, and does, indeed, present a grassy hunk of hare habitat.
The Hare is signed, Turf is not, yet both remain unsurpassed in their reality and charm, then as now. The Hare is marginally smaller, 10in by 8in, and, therefore, even when habitually and mistakenly called The Young Hare, is clearly not as realistic because it is not life-size; whereas the Turf is as great as in reality. Perhaps Dürer kept it for himself with no need for a signature.
What Leonardo-like curiosity and bravado of him to choose literally a slice of life, not an isolated specimen or picked arrangement. Doubtless, it was cut as a sod, roots and all, the better to enable him to paint it. Nonetheless, it is a miracle of observation for such a frail and complex subject. Botanists have named the contents of the arbitrary clump: cock’s foot, creeping bent, smooth meadow-grass, daisy, dandelion, germander speedwell, greater plantain, hound’s tongue, yarrow. The left side is cropped, depth and space conveyed by the contrasting horizon line on the right.
It becomes micro and macro, a turf in a landscape. As our enchanting miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619) wrote of Dürer: ‘The most exquisite man that ever leaft us lines to vieue.’
My Favourite Painting: Lucinda Bredin
Lucinda Bredin chooses her favourite painting for Country Life.
My Favourite Painting: Meera Syal
Meera Syal chooses her favourite painting for Country Life.
My Favourite Painting: Lynn Barber
Lynn Barber chooses her favourite painting for Country Life.
My Favourite Painting: Barry Cryer
'Like all her work, it displays a ripe sense of humour, which is what attracted me to it. No pretension,
-
How to disconnect from reality and feel like a new person in under 72 hoursOur round-up of the best British retreats that work wellness wonders in under 72 hours.
-
Evenley Wood Garden: 'I didn't know a daffodil from a daisy! But being middle-aged, ignorant and obstinate, I persisted'When Nicola Taylor took on her plantsman father’s flower-filled woodland, she knew more about horses than trees, but, as Tiffany Daneff discovers, that hasn’t stopped her from making a great success of the garden. Photographs by Clive Nichols.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
