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England

England
 1850

Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
123.3 × 184.8 cm
Inscription
inscribed (diagonally) in black paint l.l.: THO. CRESWICK / AND / RICH / ANSDELL / 1850
Accession Number
p.306.6-1
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1878
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work

This work is the result of a very successful collaboration between Thomas Creswick, a specialist landscape painter, and Richard Ansdell a noted figure and animalier artist. Here Ansdell provided the two ploughmen, the woman delivering their dinner, the team of horses and the dog in the foreground who is distracted by a murder of crows. England was positively reviewed by a critic in the Art Journal (1851)... ‘These two artists work together extremely well, their touch and feeling bearing a strong correlation." Creswick’s landscapes have a fresh and lively appearance as he preferred to work directly from nature and his foliage was praised by the noted critic John Ruskin in Modern Painters. This work was painted after another England by Creswick was successfully exhibited at London's Royal Academy in 1847.

Subjects (general)
Agriculture Human Figures Landscapes
Subjects (specific)
clouds collaboration crows (birds) dog (species) draft horses England (country) horse (species) ploughs (agricultural equipment)
Provenance
Collection of William Alfred Joyce (1812–65), for whom painted, Tulse Hill, Lambeth, South London, 1850–65; Estate of William Alfred Joyce, until 1876; included in the Christie's sale, London, 22 July 1876, no. 99; from where purchased by John and William Vokins (dealer), London, 1876; by whom sold to J.W. Jenkins; from whom repurchased by Vokins, 1878; from where purchased, by Alfred Taddy Thompson, for the NGV, 1878.

Exhibited: British Institution, London, 1851, no. 22, as A day in the country.


Frame

The frame presents a complex mixture of fine-scale working and pragmatic production methods. The style is largely classical revival. The maker is identified with stencils on the reverse.

Framemaker
J. & W. Vokins
London
Date
1878
Materials

The frame is assembled from three basic wooden sections. Each section is mitred together with the mitres exposed on the front. The torus ornament is made by wrapping a composition layer of fine-scale imbricated laurel and berry around a wooden dowel. This section is attached to the leading edge with nails. The leaves are centred and cross-banded with bands also across the mitres at the corners. As a result the torus appears to be more ‘in the round’ than usual. The flat section on which it sits appears to have been burnished, which serves to reflect the underside of the torus section. Both the inner and outer scotia are burnished on a black bole. The working edge is gilded and the narrow flat is coated with fine sand. The slip appears to be water gilded. Three additional bands of composition decoration are used.

More Information
National Portrait Gallery

Colourmen

Colourman
ROBERSON
Location of stamp
Left and right side of horizontal stretcher cross brace reverse
Transcript
CHARLES ROBERSON & CO./ARTISTS' COLOURMEN,/MANUFACTURERS OF WATER AND OIL COLOURS./Materials for Drawing & Painting,/99,LONG ACRE, LONDON.
Medium
Paper label
More Information
National Portrait Gallery