Derbyshire Farm

James Patchell Chettle 1871 - 1944

Summary

A very bright, light-coloured painting depicting a farmyard scene in Derbyshire. To the left, a woman can be seen feeding ducks near the entrance to one of the farm buildings, to the left a man is herding cattle in the shed. The foreground of the image descends into a pathway that fades into the distance, curving to the left. The scene appears to be illuminated in bright sunlight as there is a stark shadow cast by the left-hand building. The farmhouse occupying the middle ground of the image is glowing with white, radiant colour, the foreground depicts the land around the buildings in pastel shades of pink, green and yellow. The painting is highly impressionistic in style and form as the colours are not naturalistic and the brushwork is patchy and textured. The hills in the background are painted in whitened shades of brown and green to imply distance.