May 2020
Publisher: Ernst Wasmuth A.G. / Berlin
With an Introduction by Charles F. G. Masterman
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
74: Land’s End, Cornwall
1926
In this, the second tranche of photographs from E. O. Hoppé’s 1926 book Picturesque Great Britain: Its Architecture and Landscape, we can analyse some of the techniques of picture construction that the artist has so creatively mastered.
Firstly, that of the floating horizon line. In photographs such as 74: Land’s End, Cornwall; 80: Selworthy, Somerset; 82: Selworthy Church, Selworthy, Somerset; 84: Minehead, Somerset; and 91: Cambden Crescent in Bath, Somerset, Hoppé com/piles the foreground with tone, form and structure, but let’s the eye escape to a distant horizon which moves up and down, according to context, place, space… within the image frame. Time and again he uses this method of allowing the eye to escape the confines of the image.
Secondly, a framing device that the artist is particularly fond of is that of the road, pathway or bridge that helps lead the eye into the image and on to the vanishing point. We can see this approach in photographs such as 96: Approach to Cloisters, Gloucester Cathedral; 97: The Cloisters, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire; 101: Withe Cottage, Conway, Wales; and 132: The Bridge, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire.
Another framing device that the artist uses very effectively is what I call the blocked approach (to the subject) – which can be seen in photographs such as 77: Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset; 117: Chester, Cheshire; 119: Norman Arches, Much Wenlock Abbey, Shropshire; and 142: Wilsford Manor, Wiltshire, where the object which is in focus in the distance is revealed through out of focus arches, wood, masonry or pillars.
A further device is that of the mid-distance band within the pictorial plane, where Hoppé contains the important architectural information into a central section of information. In photographs such as 103: Carnavon Castle, Wales; 121: Evesham, Worcestershire; and 144: Bideston, Wiltshire the artist focuses the viewers attention in the mid-distance, where the buildings float between ground and air. Instead of closing in to fill the frame, Hoppé is content, satisfied with things as they are… happy to enunciate in the images the sum of what he has perceived, discovered, and learned about his subject, without the need to approach to closely or force the matter. In other words, he lets the architecture speak for itself within the landscape.
In looking at architectural forms of different periods, Hoppé does not rely on the formulaic, the tried and tested traditions of landscape and architecture photography from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. His is not the normal seeing of flat images with limited depth (of substance, of feeling). He is too talented (and experimental) and artist for that.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. These photographs are published under fair use conditions for educational purposes only. See Part 1; Part 3; and Part 4 of the posting.
This magnificent set of pictures displays, with all the art of genius both in selection and technical skill, the beauty of the British Isles. I know of no similar collection which could give alike to the foreigner who wonders what England is like, to the Englishman who has wandered from his native land into all the great dominions of the world, and to the man who has remained behind, that particular sense of pleasure mingled with pain which all beauty excites, and excites especially a passionate love in the vision of home.
This is an introduction to pictures of the landscapes and the works of man; these latter ennobled by the associations of time, and in some cases by time’s decay. They open vistas through which one may gaze at the history of England for a thousand years.
Charles F. G. Masterman
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
75: Packhorse Bridge, Allerford, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
77: Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
80: Selworthy, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
81: Selworthy, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
82: Selworthy Church, Selworthy, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
83: From Porlock Hill, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
84: Minehead, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
86: Minehead, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
87: The Market Place, Dunster
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
89: The Royal Crescent, Bath, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
90: Bath, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
91: Cambden Crescent in Bath, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
93: Wells Cathedral, Somerset
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
96: Approach to Cloisters, Gloucester Cathedral
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
97: The Cloisters, Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucestershire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
98: Pembridge, Herefordshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British, born Germany 1878-1972)
101: Withe Cottage, Conway, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
102: Carnavon Castle, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
103: Carnavon Castle, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
105: Pass of Bwlch-Goerd, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
106: Bwlch-Goerd Pass, on the Road to Bala, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
107: The Druid Circle, Aberystwyth, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
108: On the Bwlch-y-Goerd Pass, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
110: Beddgelert, Carnavonshire, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
111: Llandinam Lake, Mid-Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
112: Snowdon, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
113: Snowdon at Pen-y-Gwryd, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
114: Llanberis Pass, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
115: Wye Valley, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
116: In the Wye Valley, Wales
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
117: Chester, Cheshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
119: Norman Arches, Much Wenlock Abbey, Shropshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
120: Bridgenorth, Shropshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
121: Evesham, Worcestershire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
124: Harlebury Castle, Worcestershire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
125: Worcester Cathedral
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
126: Rous Lench, Worcestershire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
127: Court Farm, Broadway, Worcestershire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
130: Broadway, Worcestershire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
132: The Bridge, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
133: Ann Hathaway’s Cottage, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
134: The Grammar School, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
135: Welfford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
137: Leycester Hospital, Warwick, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
138: Leycester Hospital, Warwick, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
139: Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
140: Stoneleigh Abbey, Near Leamington, Warwickshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
142: Wilsford Manor, Wiltshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
143: Wilsford Manor, Wiltshire
1926
E. O. Hoppé (British born Germany, 1878-1972)
144: Bideston, Wiltshire
1926
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