Originality and similarity

Rally in the Alps – Triumph TR3 was painted by the Roy Nockolds, a seasoned painter of car races, rallies and also speedboat races. In the 1930s this was a popular genre in England and the artist left us countless paintings and watercolors on this subject. He was also a well-known illustrator for the many car magazines of the time.

In his painting we see a car driving through the darkness under a moon and starless sky. The bright headlights cut through the dark and illuminate the road ahead. In the distance you can just see the rear lights of a predecessor. They emphasize the loneliness of the car in the nocturnal nature. The surrounding mountain landscape may indicate a special rally, but the effect has certainly also been chosen. The painter took advantage of the idea that darkness can change shapes and sometimes make them appear bigger and more menacing than they really are. The ghostly shadows add to the mysterious atmosphere associated with driving through the night in an inhospitable area. The sense of “beautiful mysterious” is still present in the visual arts to this day. Consider, for example, the paintings of Edward Hopper. Or the photos of the 70s and 80s American William Eggleston, which show us the dark and hidden world of night, where most of us sleep and only a few are awake.

A century earlier, during Romanticism, a similar fascination for the mysterious atmosphere of night and moonlight led to the popularity of the night scene or “nocturne”. Painters such as Jacobus Theodorus Abels and Petrus van Schendel specialized in nocturnal landscapes and night markets in which, in addition to moonlight, open fire and candlelight, the light source. Other painters also occasionally practiced the genre, which was seen as an example of mastery, because it was not simple. Louis Meijer, usually a painter of handsome romantic seascapes and harbors with ships, occasionally ventured into a nocturnal (river) landscape. In its River with moonlit moored sailing ship, the creped moon casts a silvery light on a river between hills. The boat has hoisted the sails, as if it is ready to sail away in the windless night. Here, too, a bend in the river hides an unknown distance. It is an image that could exist in a dream and which radiates a mystery that was much appreciated and admired by contemporaries.