Apple Day"Virtual" Gallery
Apple Day
"Virtual" Gallery
Mention poetry, plays or pastimes, and few of us will immediately think of orchards - words such as picking, pruning or planting are far more likely to come to mind. But the linguistic reflex that instantly consigns orchards to the horticultural realm misleads us. In operas and oil paintings, cartoons and computers, orchards and their fruit continue to play a vital inspirational role.
In stories that reverberate through civilisation after civilisation, the apple is frequently a lure: from Eve to Snow White, women in particular are tempted by that shiny red skin. Deceived by appearances, the innocent heroines succumb - though it is often the reddest patch on an apple that hides a maggot.
Today, apples as whimsical emblems of temptation and lost innocence pop up on book spines as well as in advertising. They feature in political cartoons, on stamps and as corporate logos - the Common Ground book of orchards was produced on an Apple Macintosh computer (itself named after the McIntosh Red variety of apple). Apples appear in county, district, borough or parish council emblems, on pub signs, as street names and in cosmetics. Everywhere we look, we are likely to find the apple, orchard or other fruit used as a symbol, ripe with multiple meanings.
Time and time again, apples and orchards have bridged the cultural gulf between everyday customs and traditions and high art. The apple's rich symbolism extends undiminished right the way through from classical Greek and Roman literature to contemporary fine art.
This gallery connects to the wide spectrum of artistic representations of apples, orchards and their related imagery that can be found in galleries, museums and collections (including our own) across the UK - and beyond, but it is only a small sample of what is out there. Is your local gallery displaying apple-related works from its own collection on Apple Day?
We would like to thank the galleries, museums & collections that have kindly participated in this 'virtual gallery' and permitted us to links to images in their collections (presented here in alphabetical order).
The links to images on this page will open the hosting museum or gallery's web-site in a new window. Common Ground is not responsible for the content of these external pages.
A is for Apple
Ivan Allen - Warrior, Brown Snout & Colloget Pippin
(ink, 2007)
Common Ground 'The Apple Source Book'
Richard Allen - Beauty of Bath
(ink, 2007)
Common Ground 'The Apple Source Book'
Australian Apple Case Labels
(print)
From 'The Art of Apple Branding'
Dovrat Ben-Nahum - Apple Day, October 21st
(ink, watercolour, 2005)
Common Ground, postcard
Jabez Bligh - Apple Blossom
(watercolour, 19th century)
The Whitworth Art Gallery, the University of Manchester
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, William Morris, Morris and Company (Merton Abbey) - Pomona
(tapestry, 1885)
The Whitworth Art Gallery, the University of Manchester
Antoine Chintreuil - Les pommiers en fleur (Apple trees in blossom)
(painting, c1870s)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
John Henry Dearle, Morris and Company (Merton Abbey) - Apple
(furnishing fabric, 1895-1900)
The Whitworth Art Gallery, the University of Manchester
Richard Farrington - COX Seats
(metal, 1992)
Colnbrook Community Orchard, Berkshire / Common Ground
Donald Henry Floyd - The Apple Sorter
(painting, 1928)
Newport Museum & Art Gallery, South Wales: 'Documenting the City'
Dennis Gould - Scrumpin
(print)
Common Ground
Brian Grimwood - Traditional orchards, well worth preserving
(ink, watercolour, 2005)
Common Ground, postcard
Ron Haselden - Tree dressing (France)
Common Ground
Sydney Haward, Jeffrey and Co. - The Apple Tree
(wallpaper, 1906-7)
The Whitworth Art Gallery, the University of Manchester
David Holmes with Toby Holmes - 21 Years of Apple Day [after woodcut by Joseph Crawhill esq. 19th century]
(woodcut, 2010)
Common Ground
Ursula Leach - Crab Apple, Cranborne Chase
(40cm x 51cm oil on canvas, painted especially for the 21st Apple Day)
Common Ground
David Nash - Apple Tree
(ink, 1989)
Common Ground, 'In a Nutshell'
Samuel Palmer - The Magic Apple Tree
(ink & watercolour, 1830)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Samuel Palmer - In a Shoreham Garden
(Ink, watercolour and bodycolour mixed with gum, 1829)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
You can see this an a large number of other apple & orchard related images from the V&A's collections on their special "A is for Apple" page, created specially for Apple Day 2007 <www.vam.ac.uk>
Artists featured include Henriette Browne, Edward Burne-Jones, Florence Claxton, Carlo Crivelli, Mark Edwards, Henry Fletcher, John Harris, Wenceslaus Hollar, Robert C. Hulme, Charles Jones, Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, Edward Lear, Isaac Oliver, Beatrix Potter, Thomas Riley, Anne Rook, John Sherrin, Alfred George Stevens, C.F.A. Voysey & Frederick Walker.
Samuel Palmer - Study of a bough laden with apples
(drawing, 19th century)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Jim Partridge - Apple game
(burnt oak, c1989)
Common Ground
Camille Pissarro - Snowy landscape at Eragny with an apple tree
(painting, 1895)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
James Ravilious - Somerset orchard
(photographs)
Common Ground
Charles Raymond - Apples
(1999)
Common Ground, postcards
Pierre Auguste Renoir - Apples and teacup
(painting)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Pierre Auguste Renoir - Apples and walnuts
(painting)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Lucinda Rogers - Butterfly
(ink, 2007)
Common Ground 'The Apple Source Book'
Dan Williams - Basket of apples
(ink, 2007)
Common Ground 'The Apple Source Book'
Seek out other apple artworks online - like Van Gogh's 'Basket of apples' & 'Still life with apples and pumpkins' at the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands, Michael Lloyd's 'Apple Bowl' in Tyne & Wear or Daubigny's 'Orchard in Blossom' at the National Galleries of Scotland.
Find what to-day's artists are producing - like Peter Ursem's 'Orchard (Summer)' on the Counterparts web-site, the work of Arthur Homeshaw at Mid-Cornwall Galleries, or the apple and pear still-lives of Mark Cheng and Rowan Lennon at Eagle Gallery, Bedford.
