Farmyard: evening - milking time thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Farmyard: evening - milking time

Oil Painting
ca. 1810-6 (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

An oil painting depicting cows being milked in a farmyard at dusk.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleFarmyard: evening - milking time (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Oil on panel
Brief description
Oil painting entitled 'Farmyard: Evening - Milking Time' by James M. Burnet. Great Britain, ca. 1810-6.
Physical description
An oil painting depicting cows being milked in a farmyard at dusk.
Dimensions
  • Estimate height: 43.2cm
  • Estimate width: 37.5cm
Dimensions taken from Summary catalogue of British Paintings, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973
Style
Credit line
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Object history
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. John Sheepshanks (1787-1863), art collector, was the son of the wealthy cloth manufacturer and merchant Joseph Sheepshanks. John succeeded his father in the family firm of York and Sheepshanks in Leeds. After his retirement from business in 1827, John Sheepshanks moved to London. He made several trips to the Continent but lived relatively modestly. Apart from art, Sheepshanks was interested in gardening and was a member of both the Royal Horticultural Society and the Athenaeum Club. Sheepshanks liked to pursue his interest in art by entertaining painters and engravers at informal Wednesday "at homes".

Sheepshanks began his interest in art through collecting books of Dutch and Flemish prints. Before he moved to London he made purchases at the Northern Society in Leeds. In London he actively patronized artists including Landseer, Mulready, Leslie, Callcott and Cooke. His taste was for contemporary early Victorian cabinet pictures of anecdotal, sentimental, and instructive subjects, as well as scenes from literature. His collection was unique for its time being the only large scale one of contemporary British paintings. He gave his collection of 233 oils and 298 watercolours, etchings and drawings to the South Kensington museum in 1857 (see departmental file on Sheepshanks). The deed of gift stipulated that "a well-lighted and otherwise suitable" gallery should be built to house his collection near the buildings of the Science and Art department on the South Kensington Site. This followed Sheepshanks' wish to create a 'gallery of British art'. The Sheepshanks Gallery was opened in 1857.

Historical significance: James M. Burnet (1788-1816), landscape painter, was born in Musselburgh, Edinburghshire. His elder brother, John Burnet (1784-1868), was a painter and engraver. While apprenticed to a wood engraver James attended the evening classes of John Graham at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh. Although he was beginning to establish a reputation for his cattle pieces in Edinburgh, in 1810 James decided to join his brother John in London, where he was working. When James arrived his brother was employed on making an engraving of the painting titled The Blind Fidler by the popular genre artist David Wilkie (1785-1841). James Burnet was impressed with Wilkie's work, which drew from seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish genre scenes. Wilkie’s work led Burnet to explore this school of art. However he chose to focus on the Landscape paintings of artists including Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691) and Paulus Potter (1625-1654). He worked from his studio in Chelsea, drawing on the landscape that surrounded him in the areas of Fulham and Battersea, which were then largely rural countryside. Burnet began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1812. Although by the early twentieth century his work had grown out of favour, during his lifetime and following his premature death from consumption in 1816, Burnet was hailed by his contemporaries for his artistic abilities.

Burnet has chosen the unusual format of portrait for this landscape painting. This format echoes the vertical elements in the composition, including the centrally placed tree and the farm buildings. Two figures are shown seated on a horse that walks down a lane, which is framed on either side by barns. The soft golden light of the almost cloudless sky can be viewed beyond the buildings. The pale tone of the sky conveys the time of day of this scene as being the evening. It also reflects the treatment of sky in the paintings of Dutch seventeenth-century artists including Philips Wouwermans (1619-1668) and Meindert Hobbema (1638-1700), both of whom Burnet admired. The motif of the tree curving up against the form of the barn can be found in paintings of Dutch seventeenth-century artists including Hobbema’s Road-side Inn of the 1660s (Foundation E. G. Bührle Collection, Zurich).The choice of a landscape in evening light with cattle is typical of Burnet. His first exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1812 was subject was titled Evening: Cattle Returning Home and he continued to exhibit paintings of a similar theme until his premature death in 1816.

The soft light creates a feeling of peace which is emphasized in the slow movement of the horse as it walks in to the distance and the cow who sits patiently outside the barn waiting to be milked. Burnet was highly regarded as a cattle painter by his contemporaries. This painting demonstrates Burnet’s ability to observe the cattle.

The genre of rural landscapes such as this one was enjoying popularity at the turn of the nineteenth century. While Burnet would have been able to observe these animals at first hand in the open pastures around Battersea and Fulham the painting also reflects the artist’s interest in how Dutch seventeenth-century artists cattle painters, including Aelbert Cuyp and Paulus Potter, were observing these animals.

This painting, along with Landscape with Cows Drinking (FA.5), were given along with two works by James’ brother John, as part of the John Sheepshanks collection in 1857. Sheepshanks focussed on collecting predominantly contemporary British works. The presence of these works by both John and James Burnet in his collection reflects the regard which contemporaries held for both the Burnet brothers.

References: Irwin, D and Irwin, F., Scottish Painters: At Home and Abroad 1700-1900, London, 1975, pp.237-8.
Subjects depicted
Collection
Accession number
FA.5A[O]

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Record createdSeptember 28, 2006
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