Summer in Cumberland

James Durden 1878 - 1964

Summary

A sitting room scene looking through tall sash windows towards Derwentwater and the Scafell Range in Cumberland, (Cumbria/the Lake District). An elegantly dressed mother and daughter are sitting by the open window, having afternoon tea. A small cat is sitting at the older woman's feet. Just outside the window there is a young man in cricket whites. Bright sunlight falls through the window across the floor.

Display Label

Gallery text panel Tradition and Experiment Early Twentieth-Century Art 1900 - 1939. In Britain, the beginning of the 20th century coincided with the end of the Victorian age. Artists and designers experimented, challenging traditional ways of seeing and making; now trying to create a new art for a modern era. In painting, it was often traditional subject matter such as portraits, landscapes and interiors that would be tackled in new ways. The bustle and the brutality of urban life was an inspiration or something to escape from. Boundaries became increasingly blurred between design and decoration, painting and making and individual expression replaced academic authority. Art was made to be affordable and at a scale that would fit into ordinary homes. Some called the celebration of the modern into question after the horrors of the First World War. Traditional imagery was simplified or became childlike and slowly broke down into fragmented visions. Dream and chance tapped into subconscious anxieties and in 1939, world war intervened once again.