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.
Her hyper-realistic style with vibrant colours and shimmering surfaces show a snapshot of the fruit at a moment in time as well as something of its underlying characteristics. She says “I want to encourage the viewer to touch, even to want to bite into one of the tempting fruits”. In this journal article, Brigitte shares her influences and motivations, and the process by which she creates her stunning oil paintings.
Brigitte mentions Elisabeth Dowle’s botanical studies, which featured in a previous journal article on Apples & People. Elisabeth’s award-winning apple and pear watercolour paintings are on display at the Museum of Cider in Hereford until 15th October.
Our latest Apple Story considers different artistic interpretations of the biblical narrative of Eve and the Apple in the Garden of Eden.
The painting ‘Eve Tempted’ is part of ‘The Eve Trilogy’ by British Symbolist artist George Frederick Watts who died on 1st July 1904. In these three paintings in the Tate’s collection, Watts deepened consideration of Eve’s role in picking the apple, changing the traditional narrative.
They are an important part of an artistic journey that shows Eve as mother earth, temptress, innocent go-between, transgressor and more recently, feminist. As well as ‘Eve Tempted’, the story includes a painting from the Mauritshuis in The Hague that is a collaboration between Rubens and Breughel, a Durer engraving in the collection of The MET in New York, and sculptures by contemporary artists Claire Partington and Siobhan Hapaska.
New Commission: Purgatory Plucked
The story is accompanied by a new musical composition ‘Purgatory Plucked’ commissioned by Apples & People, in which musician Hilary Norris (organist, harpsichordist, composer, and choral director) sets together two old texts about Adam and Eve into a short choral work.
As revellers congregate within sight of mystical Glastonbury Tor in Somerset UK for the 50th anniversary Glastonbury Festival, today’s story is a misty soup of Celtic legend and mediaeval tales about Avalon, the mythical Isle of Apples.
The story includes extracts from the twelfth century writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth and nineteenth century poetry by Lord Tennyson. Illustrations include detail from the atmospheric study ‘King Arthur at Avalon’ by Sir Edward Burne-Jones from National Museums Wales in Cardiff, photographs of orchards at Glastonbury from the National Trust and Somerset photographer Bill Bradshaw, and an Aubrey Beardsley illustration for ‘Le Morte D’Arthur’ by Sir Thomas Malory. Cider apples in Glastonbury Abbey orchard were painted by Somerset cider pomologist and author Liz Copas, who is a member of the International Advisory Panel for Apples & People.
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.
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
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Yosuke Amemiya and the search for the Universal Apple
Home, JournalYosuke made his first melted apple in 2004, life-sized highly realistic yet distorted fruit that blur the distinction between reality and fiction. His melted apple sculptures are intended to deceive the viewer’s eye.
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.