Oil painting, 'Disturbed - a plover rising from its nest', John Wright Oakes ARA, 1879

An oil painting showing a plover bursting from its nest in a meadow; the sky is clear, with clouds on the horizon, and the light indicates that it is twilight.

Purchased, 1879.

Historical significance: John Wright Oakes (1820-1887) studied art at the Liverpool Mechanics' Institute. He began painting landscapes in about 1843; his favourite locations were in Scotland, Ireland, Devon and Wales, although he also made a tour of Switzerland. Oakes began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1848, and was represented there virtually every year until his death. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1876.

Oakes was influenced by the naturalistic style of the highly successful landscape painters B.W. Leader and Vicat Cole. His pursuit of naturalism in landscape is combined with an interest in effects of light, such as the subtle spring twilight here.

Oakes exhibited a work at the Royal Academy in 1879 with the title Disturbed: early spring - twilight. 'In sober livery all things clad' (no.378), which seems to be identical with this painting. It was mentioned in a review in the Art Journal as a landscape 'deserving of attention', and described as 'a study of twilight in the early spring'.

John Wright Oakes exhibited a painting at the Royal Academy in 1879 with the title Disturbed: early spring - twilight. 'In sober livery all things clad', which seems to be this painting. Oakes's palette has a brightness and freshness, qualities evident in Constable's work earlier in the century. His pursuit of naturalism in landscape is combined with an interest in effects of light, such as the subtle spring twilight here, which may have been inspired by Turner.

224-1879