Potato Harvest in the Fens, by Robert Walker Macbeth R.A., R.W.S., R.E., R.I., R.O.I. (1848-1910). 1877. Oil on canvas; 17 3/4 x 52 3/4 inches (45 x 134 cm). Private collection. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
This painting is emblematic of the Idyllist School and Alfred Baldry has pointed out Macbeth's affiliation and debt to this group:
In the process of mapping out his career Mr. Macbeth has, however, had the wisdom to allow his tastes to be guided by the traditions of one of the best schools of romantic painting that has ever flourished in this country. He is to-day the chief representative of the movement that owed its vitality to Fred. Walker, G. J. Pinwell, George Mason, and a few other men of kindred feeling; and he brings to our own times the artistic flavour that made the productions of this group of painters so distinctive and delightful. Yet he is not a copyist of the methods and manner of the school. His sympathy with them is beyond question, but it does not descend into imitation for imitation's sake, and it is emphatically free from mechanical repetition of second-hand ideas. Obviously his association with the men among whom Fred. Walker ranked as leader and chief has come about solely because he found their view of art to be one that agreed completely with his personal belief, and because that way of dealing with Nature's facts impressed him as correct.... At present almost anything is possible from him; he has never made the mistake of formulating his convictions, and he has remained as receptive and as responsive to impressions as he was when he first attached himself to Fred. Walker and his school. [290, 292]
The version shown above is a reduced version of the one Macbeth exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1877, no. 1031. This smaller version sold at Sotheby's, London, on July 14, 2021, lot 101. It shows a group of farm labourers, primarily women, harvesting potatoes in a field. The women and children in the centre of the composition are portrayed picking potatoes and putting them in baskets. Three men are seen behind them on the left, one of whom is whipping the horses used to plough the crop. In the right foreground a man is seen sitting on a horse-drawn cart loading potatoes into it as they are handed to him in baskets. A windmill is seen in the far distance on the left horizon. Storm clouds gather in the sky around the group in the centre. This work exemplifies Hardie's comments about Macbeth's rustic works: "There is always charm in his pastoral subjects, particularly in the Fen country which he loved, in his understanding of rural life and seasonal changes, and particularly in his seizure of character in figures set always with dignity of gesture and movement in relation to their open-air work" (190).
Closer view of the central group of figures.
>When the principal version of this work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1877 it was favourably reviewed in general. The Architect thought the work was too imitative of the work of Fred Walker, however: "Mr. R. W. Macbeth's Potato Harvest (1031), has too plain an imitation of Walker in the figures, as was the case last year; the faces and the attitudes are caught from him. This picture is strong, striking and unconventional" (347). The critic of The Art Journal had "nothing but emphatic praise" for the painting (271). F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum gave the most extensive review, liking it but finding the painting style a little coarse: "The spirit and variety of Mr. R.W. Macbeth's Potato Harvest in the Fens are unquestionable; a numerous group of stalwart wenches at work in windy and showery spring weather; it has a good design, expressed compactly and ably in a first-rate composition, and wants but something of chiaroscuro, of colour, and light and shade to gain immensely as a picture. The style is vigorous, the painting strong, but 'painty,' and a little coarse' (677)
Henry Blackburn was also complimentary in his Academy Notes: "The next picture is also one of importance – No. 1031 Potato Harvest in the Fens. A fitting pendant to A Lincolnshire Gang, exhibited last year. Women and children at work is the subject again; the time is late afternoon, and the baskets are being filled with the potatoes ploughed up in the furrows. There is a windy sky and a rain cloud, not indicated in the sketch. The aim is elevated, and the treatment classical" (65-66).
Shown immediately above is an etching on paper of the same title, also from 1877 (click on the image for more information).
Link to Related Material
Bibliography
Baldry, Alfred Lys. "R. W. Macbeth, A.R.A." The Art Journal New Series XXXIX (1900): 289-92.
"The Black-and-White Exhibition at the Dudley Gallery." The Art Journal New Series XVI (1877): 228.
Blackburn, Henry Ed. Academy Notes. London: Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly (May 1877): 1-72.
Hardie, Martin. Water-Colour Painting in Britain. III The Victorian Period. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1968.
"Painting at the Royal Academy - III." The Architect XVII (2 June 1877): 346-47.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition." The Art Journal New Series XVI (1877): 269-72.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 2587 (26 May 1877: 675-78.
Created 1 June 2023