C: What is the concept of ‘Nature’ and ‘Ecology’ in the 19th century?

T: Lots of things happened in the 19th century. I think there were two elements of ecology that people saw at that time. First, people didn’t think that human beings were part of nature. Generally due to the influence of Christianity, people believed that plants and animals were all created by God for human beings. However,  when Darwin’s Origin of Species was published, it contradicted the idea that human beings were created by God. This rapidly changed the idea about what human beings were and people started to think how human beings were a part of the material world. This reinforced the second element, which was to pay attention to how human life interacted with the rest of the natural world in a kind of organic way. People thought about how human beings were integrated into an environment, and how they were part of a global system of environments and eco-systems. In this view, the world is composed of interconnected processes, especially ecological processes. When those different systems interact with each other and everything is doing well, there is harmony. So I think this was a new idea in the 19th century.

C: How is the beginning of ecology that you observe from the Western Painting?

T: In fact, Rousseau, the French painter who was a leading artist in the Barbizon School, was the first ecological painter in the Western world. I think his art was ecological in a couple of ways. First, on the scientific side, his paintings view the world in a connective way. Second, on the political side, he promoted the conservation of the nature. His pictures represent the world in an ecological way, showing interconnected natural processes, and he was interested in eco-politics. He wrote a petition that succeeded in getting land preservation in France in 1853. He strived for land conservation.

Interviewer: Tracy Lee, Kendra Tang (C)

Interviewee: Dr. Greg M. Thomas, an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at The University of Hong Kong (T)

Writing: Kendra Tang, Emery Chan

Ecology seems like a modern concept, but Dr. Greg M. Thomas observes that it began in the 19th century. In his academic research, he found that Theodore Rousseau, the French painter, is the first painter who represented a sense of environmental protection through his works. Let’s have a casual talk with Dr. Thomas.

Group of Oaks at Apremont in the Forest of Fontainebleau. This painting represents trees, cows, and a shepherd living in harmony.

C: How does Rousseau’s represent the connection between his world and ecology?

T: In Rousseau’s works, the most common subject is old trees. He loved old trees. One of the things he wanted to preserve was a section of very old trees in the French emperor’s Forest of Fontainebleau, which represented nature and was also symbolic of French national history. So the old trees were important. In Group of Oaks at Apremont in the Forest of Fontainebleau, painted in the 1850s, you can see old trees that may be three or four hundred years old. And there are also different ages of old trees, some like grandparents, parents, as well as baby trees. These trees in the middle may be a few hundred years old, some may be younger. So it’s almost like a family of old trees sitting there in the middle of open space.

Besides, he wanted to show the shepherd with a lot of cows. Locals were allowed to use the forest for grazing their animals. They used the forest to graze their cows; it shows how human beings and small villages interacted with nature.

The plain in the painting has almost no trees, but it was part of the forest owned by the Emperor of France. People were allowed to collect wood, rather than cutting wood from the trees or planting trees for their own purpose, such as making paper. To Rousseau, the most important thing is that human beings cannot destroy the beauty of nature.

C: How did a landscape painter represent a natural order?

T: “The Forest in Winter at Sunset”. This is one of the biggest paintings by him. It shows an area with lots of old trees, and this was an area he wanted to preserve. You can see the huge trees growing over a long period of time. There is water in the middle and three women carrying sticks. They collected firewood, and brought it back to their village. So we can see the harmonious interaction between old tree and human life through this painting.

The Forest in Winter at Sunset. This painting shows the connection of human beings and nature.