Apples & People explores the astonishing story of the apple, connecting its diverse history to humanity and culture. Based upon a specially commissioned global map of the apple which traces a network of stories from the ancient world to the present day, this online programme and associated social media reveals just how significant and iconic this humble fruit has become.
All our Apple Stories feature on The Apple World Map that was painted by Helen Cann in 2020 for Apples & People. This Apple Story is about the Gangines of India, also known as the Astomi.
These are a mythical people who live only by smelling roots, flowers, and wild apples. The Gangines also feature on a much older map, the Mappa Mundi, a depiction of the world drawn by Richard of Holdingham in about 1300.
This treasure, perhaps the outstanding representation of medieval understanding of the marvels of the world, hangs in Hereford Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Ethelbert. St Ethelbert was martyred just north of Hereford on 20th May 794 and the Feast Day of Ethelbert the King is celebrated on 20th May.
As well as images from the Mappa Mundi itself, the Apple Story is illustrated with depictions of the Astomi from other ancient documents and books. It is accompanied by a new ceramic sculpture commission ‘Apple-blossom sniffer’ by Herefordshire artist Lucy Baxendale.
It was with sadness that we heard from Australia of the death of John Cripps at the age of 95.
Described by the Australian growers as an apple industry legend, John Cripps bred and selected the apple that was to become Pink Lady® the world’s first apple ‘brand’ now grown around the world.
Apples & People celebrated his achievement with our story ‘Congratulations Mr Cripps‘ last year.
John Cripps’ lifetime legacy reminds us that sometimes success only comes through hard work and tenacity.
Yosuke Amemiya is a Japanese artist who has worked with the apple for over twenty years, asking the question ‘what makes an apple an apple?’.
His melted apples blur the distinction between reality and fiction, and he has used artificial intelligence to research the form of the one apple that is the most representative apple around the world.
Compare Yosuke’s artistic message of the ‘universal’ apple in this Journal of Apples article to Elisabeth Dowle’s precise watercolours showcasing the different forms and colours of apple varieties that we featured last month.
An orchard – at least five fruit-bearing trees growing together in a land parcel. Orchards have been appreciated since Ancient Greek times but a report published by Natural England ten years ago was probably the first time that the multiple value of orchards had been investigated and an attempt made to monetise these impacts.
Launched on 4th May 2012, the commissioned report forms a case study of how six chosen orchards in Herefordshire impacted the local economy, provided havens of biodiversity, locked up carbon, and enhanced the quality of life for people living around them.
This Apple Story describes the evaluation process and its legacy. It is illustrated by images of orchards from the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and Herefordshire Libraries, as well as ‘Echo’s Orchard’, a collage made by a group of adults with learning difficulties of themselves in their idea of an orchard, which formed the frontispiece of the report published by Natural England.
Apple Story No. 30 published 4th May 2022
Inspired by Pissarro: Spring Summer Autumn Winter – paintings of Herefordshire orchards by Richard Gilbert, a film realised by Christopher Preece.
Apples & People commissioned artist Richard Gilbert to produce a sequence of paintings, showing the changing seasons in orchards, as a contemporary response from Herefordshire’s countryside to Pissarro’s work in Éragny-sur-Epte.
A three-minute film of the paintings shows the orchards gently changing throughout the year, as Spring gives way to Summer, Autumn and Winter.
In a Journal of Apples article ‘Inspired by Pissarro: Spring Summer Autumn Winter’ Richard describes how he went about painting two Herefordshire orchards throughout the last year, as a contemporary response from Herefordshire’s countryside to Pissarro’s work in Éragny.
Also, you can view the complete gallery of Richard’s paintings within the article.
The music used in the film, Debussy’s ‘La fille aux cheveux de lin’, was recorded at The Bishop’s Palace, Hereford in July 1994 by pianist Roger Nicols and produced by Alan Crumpler of Syrinx Records.
This is an Apples & People commission.
William Arnold describes his work with apples in an historic mining landscape in Cornwall in South West England, industry that was operating at its peak in John Chapman’s lifetime. Just like the Appleseed nurseries on the edge of the American wilderness, pips from discarded apples in Cornwall have grown to produce a diverse array of ‘wilding’ apples.
William’s article and his composite photograph ‘Wilding Apples of The Camborne & Redruth Mining District’ was commissioned by Apples & People as an English appreciation of wildings like those propagated by Johnny Appleseed.
To celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Apples & People tells a story from New Zealand about the Royal Gala apple and reminiscences of the Queen’s visits to New Zealand in 1963 and 1970.
This story is illustrated with some wonderful art.
We are honoured to have been allowed to include paintings and drawings, featuring apples, from the Royal Collection, including a study by Princess Helena Victoria, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Photographer, John Bulmer, kindly photographed a bust of the Queen with Royal Gala apples for this story, the bust had been sculpted from life by sculptor, Angela Conner.
From watercolour painter, Rosie Sanders, we are delighted to feature her wonderfully observed painting of Gala that appears in ‘The Apple Book‘, and Food Model Maker, Lottie Sweeney’s, superb model of Royal Gala is from the series of apples that she has created for Apples & People.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Apple Harvest, Éragny, 1888, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art
Our Crab Apple Mothers
Concept art of Johnny Appleseed planting a tree for Walt Disney’s animated short Johnny Appleseed (1948) © 1948 Disney
Bramley Apple Story
The Royal Gala apple, recalling Her Majesty The Queen’s visits to New Zealand
Idun and Brage, 1846, oil on canvas by Nils Jakob Blommér, Malmö Art Museum, Sweden
Malus fusca © Dr Nancy Turner
Ford Maddox Brown - Tell's Son 1880 Private Collection - Bridgeman ImagesFollow us on social media:
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JJ Lankes
Inspired by Pissarro: Spring Summer Autumn Winter
Home, JournalApples & People have commissioned artist Richard Gilbert to produce a sequence of paintings as a contemporary response from Herefordshire’s countryside to Pissarro’s work.
Painting apples with Elisabeth Dowle
Home, JournalElisabeth Dowle is one of the world’s most respected painters of fruit and flowers, producing detailed and accurate studies. Although she studied at Croydon College of Art she says that she is largely a self-taught botanical artist.
Wilding Apples
Home, JournalWilliam Arnold describes his work with apples in an historic mining landscape in Cornwall in South West England.
Golden Apples and Strudel
Home, JournalA specially commissioned film from Vienna about making apple strudel and accompanying article describes the cultural and culinary interchange between the Ottoman Empire and Christendom that shaped this Austrian favourite.
Beauty in Rottenness and other apples
Home, JournalDesigner and maker, Natalia Kossentino describes how she became the apple craftswoman of the Netherlands in this new Apple Journal article.