Drawing, a farmyard with figures and a landscape background, by Francis Barlow, pen and indian ink, ca. 1670

Farmyard with turkeys, hens, chicks, rooster and hog in the foreground, and a man on horseback and a lady in the farmhouse in the background. Cattle and landscape in the distant view.

Provenance: Kaye Dowland (Lugt no. 691) who acquired the drawing in 1869 was an English amateur collectioner, who collected drawings from the 17th and 18th century (Lugt, 124). The National Art Library also holds a prayer book (CLE C34) indicating his full name and hometown as 'Kaye Dowland born Notts, from Cuckney Ollerton in Nottingham'. The number 265 B on the back of the drawing might be an indication of a numbering system of the collector.

Historical significance:
Francis Barlow (1626?-1704) is often considered to be the first professional native English book illustrator and etcher (Hodnett, 11). His major work encompasses illustrations for Edward Benlowe’s Theophila(1562) and three series of illustrations to Aesop (Aesop’s Fables (1666), Aesopicus and Androcleus (1668), Life of Aesop (1687)). He worked together with Wenceslaus Hollar, Francis Place, Jan Griffier Henry Faithorne and Simon Gribelin, who amongst others, etched and engraved Barlow’s drawings. His work includes subjects such as political cartoons and a few portraits, but he is most well known for his depictions of wild life and sporting scenes, of which he made several book illustrations (The Parly of Beasts (1660), Variae quadrupedum species (1663), Multae et Diversae Avium Species (1671?), Severall Wayes of Hunting, Hawking and Fishing, according to the English Manner (1671) and Gentleman’s Recreation (1686)).

Animals are indeed the most prominent motif in Barlow's work. Innovative in this context is Barlow's interest in the natural habitat of the fauna. Although some of the animal depictions in his work are still strongly rooted in the heraldic tradition, most illustrations of wild and domestic animals, and birds in particular, are executed with almost scientific accuracy and a strong awareness for the creatures’ natural environment. The many postures and angles in which he draws his characters stem from years of studying from the life (Hodnett, 179). By putting the looking glass on the animals as they live and thrive in the wild, Barlow reveals tragedies and comedies on nature's stage in his drawings.

Similarly, the drawing Farmyard with Figures and Landscape Background (no. 315-1891) places the animal life on the foreground, while the farmhouse, its human inhabitants and the landscape of trees and fields merely provide a background setting. From the right a hog looks out from his sty onto a group of chickens and turkeys. Beneath the sty Barlow adds a crinkly-leaved plant, which often fills the corners of his drawings. The setting is enriched by herons in the sky and along the small beck in the lower left corner.

The composition of the farmyard is in fact very similar to a print by Francis Place after Barlow in the British Museum (registration no. Nn,7.2.25), which is a mirrored close-up of the barn, hog, hens, chicks and rooster. Barlow seems to have had some standard compositions and postures in use, which he varied in detail and spacial setting. The rooster in 315-1891 is also a similar version of the one in The Cock and the Precious Stone also by Barlow (Trinity College Cambridge, reproduced in Hodnett, p.186, no. 84). The narrative motif is taken from a woodcut by Johann Zainer (1476), but is enriched with new vivacity as Barlow depicts the cock with a turned head and not as traditionally in flat-plane profile (Hodnett, 187).

Farmyard with Figures and Landscape Background is executed in pen and indian ink. Because many of Barlow's drawings were meant to be engraved, his drawings often show heavy outlines to facilitate the transfer to a copper plate. This drawing is more finely elaborated and might have been a study from life, perhaps not intended for print. The inscription in pencil on the back, probably by the former owner Kaye Dowland, claims it was engraved by Hollar, although no evidence of this could be found.

Textual References

Hodnett, Edward. Francis Barlow: First Master of English Book Illustration.London: The Scholar Press, 1978.

Lugt, Frits. Les Marques de Collections de Dessins et d’Estampes.San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1975.

References on Barlow

Croft-Murray, Edward and Hulton, Paul. Catalogue of British Drawings. XVI & XVII Centuries.Trustees of the British Museum (eds.),Vol. 1. London, 1960, p.96-97

Pennington, Richard. A descriptive catalogue of the etched work of Wenceslaus Hollar 1607-1677.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Often described as the 'father of British sporting painting', Francis Barlow was one of the first professional English illustrators and etchers. He had a lively interest in nature and often sketched from life. In this drawing the focus lies on the domestic animals in the farmyard, while the human inhabitants and landscape are rather a background setting. Unusally for his time, Barlow depicted his animal models in their natural environment, freed from the traditional heraldic context in which animals were mostly shown.

Earlier in his career, Barlow contributed a number of illustrations to Edward Benlowe's <i>Theophila</i>, published in 1652. The V&A's National Art Library holds a copy of the book that incorporates an original drawing by Barlow, alongside the engraving (Dyce 614).

315-1891