Cheviot Farm

Frances Hodgkins 1869 - 1947

Summary

A farmyard scene, painted in a child-like style in subtle colours. A white and brown cow stands at the front right, next to a mowing or rolling-type machine with long brown handles. A gate or hurdle is seen behind the machine, and another white and black farm animal in the distance behind the cow. All are in a circular field or yard. To either side are farmyard buildings, the barn with a conical roof on the left being particularly visible. Behind the farm are rolling hills and trees, painted in blue, pink and brown, as opposed to the yellow tonality of the foreground.

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.