In an Orchard, Devon, by John William North R.W.S., A.R.A. (1842-1924). 1864. Watercolour and gouache on paper; 45/8 x 81/4 inches (11.8 x 21 cm). Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, accession no. P.34-1925. See the Gallery's Terms and Conditions. Click on both images to enlarge them.
This small watercolour was exhibited at the first ever Dudley Gallery watercolour exhibition in 1865, no. 230, but it failed to catch the attention of reviewers who seemed to prefer his An Old Court, Somerset instead. In an Orchard, Devon depicts a teenage girl and a young child, both seated in a sunlight apple orchard. The older girl wears a simple purple-blue dress and is seated on the ground behind a large wooden half-barrel filled with fragments of tree bark. Enormously tall tied sacks are situated to her right. The young girl sits on a fallen log in a mauve pinafore dress wearing a hat with a flower. She has two apples in her lap, one of which she is holding in her right hand. She is staring at her older companion, who has a pensive expression and looks straight ahead seemingly lost in thought. There is no simple explanation for the apparent lack of interaction between the two figures. The background is beautifully handled with its brilliant passages of light and shadow.
Closer view of foreground details.
Martin Hardie described North's approach to landscape painting thusly: "His landscapes reveal an almost scientific search for detail in the tangled luxuriance of orchard and copse' (138). This example would tend to support this observation.
Bibliography
Esposito, Donato. Frederick Walker and the Idyllists. London: Lund Humphries, 2017, 93.
Hardie, Martin. Water-Colour Painting in Britain. III The Victorian Period. London: William Clowes and Sons Ltd., 1968.
Created 21 May 2023