The Brontë Landscapes
In West Yorkshire, amidst the south Pennine hills near Bradford - an area popularly known as “Brontë Country” - is the village of Haworth, where Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë lived with their brother, Branwell at Haworth Parsonage, and where Charlotte and Emily wrote two of the most celebrated novels in English literature: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
I live in the village of Saltaire, a few miles from Haworth, so of course I had to explore these landscapes, anything less would be practically contrarian. As readers the world over know, the Brontë sisters used this particular landscape to express ideas that transcended it. I can only aspire to the same.
Across the Moors Towards Stanbury - oil on board; 44 x 42 cm
Haworth, Clouds over the Moors - oil on canvas; 120 x 160 cm
Haworth, the Path over the Moors - oil on canvas; 120 x 160 cm
The Path across the Moors - oil pastel; 52 x 78 cm
Storm over the Moors - oil on canvas; 120 x 150 cm
Stones on the Moors - oil pastel; 42 x 40 cm
In the catalogue that accompanied Attree’s 2017 exhibition of the Haworth landscapes, writer and art critic Andrew Lambirth wrote:
These most recent landscape paintings plumb a new vein of lyricism, not just essaying the storm-tossed top moors, but a wider seasonal remit of light on verdure, with the russets of autumn varying the greys of winter. Attree has long had a feeling for the red/green polarity, but a new range of vernal greens and combinations of less-expected colours enlighten his paintings of looking across the moors. Several of these spacious pictures feature bracken or heather, seen usually from high viewpoints under big skies. We feel we can see for miles.
“There’s almost a sense that Jake couldn’t exist if he didn’t paint. He’s also one of those artists who, once you’ve met him, you can relate back to the work. He’s not an artist who shuts you out.”
— Robert Hall: Curator, Huddersfield Art Gallery