Charles Hunt [&] James Mackrell after W. J. Shayer

The Straw Yard Morning [&] The Straw yard Evening

26 x 20

A pair of aquatints etched and engraved by Hunt and Mackrell after the paintings by William Shayer, published in London in 1848 and 1847 respectively.

With this pair of large-scale aquatints, we are firmly in the territory of peak, bucolic sentimentality. They depict idyllic farmyard scenes in the heart of the English countryside. After the paintings of the accomplished English landscape artist, William Shayer, the engravers have skilfully depicted the difference in light between morning and evening. Thatched barns dominate both scenes and the livestock are so tenderly rendered to soften even the hardest of hearts! In the background of both we see the faint outline of a church steeple, an attempt to show husbandry in total harmony with nature and all part of a divine plan. In the 1840s with the Industrial Revolution in full swing and an increasing urbanization of society there was a pathos attached to a pastoral existence that was perceived to be rapidly disappearing. Prints such as these would have provided a welcome reminder of a simpler, rustic past.

£1600 Pair