Happy England

by Marcus B. Huish

63. CUTTING CABBAGES
From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. E. W. Fordham.
Painted about 1884.

The cabbage is probably to most people the most uninteresting tenant of the kitchen-garden, and yet its presence there was probably the motive which set Mrs. Allingham to work to make this drawing, for it is clear that in the first instance it was conceived as a study of the varied and delicate mother-of-pearl hues which each presented to an artistic eye. As a piece of painting it is extremely meritorious through its being absolutely straight-forward drawing and brush work, the high lights being left, and not obtained by the usual method of cutting, scraping, or body colour. The buxom mother of a growing family selecting the best plant for their dinner is just the personal note which distinguishes each and every one of our illustrations.

64. IN A SUMMER GARDEN
From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. William Newall.
Painted about 1887.

I cannot refrain from drawing attention to this reproduction as one of the wonders of the “three colour process.” If my readers could see the three colours which produce the result when superimposed, first the yellow, then the red, and lastly the blue—aniline hues of the most forbidding character—they would indeed deem it incredible that any resemblance to the original could be possible. It certainly passes the comprehension of the uninitiated how the differing delicacies of the violet hues of the flowers to the left could be obtained from a partnership which produced the blue black of the flowers in the foreground, the light pinks of the Shirley poppies, and the rich reds of the sweetwilliams. Again, what a marvel must the photographic process be which refuses to recognise the snow-white campanula, and leaves it to be defined by the untouched paper, and yet records the faint pink flush which has been breathed upon the edges of the sweetwilliam. It is indeed a tribute to the inventive genius of the present day, genius which will probably enable the “press the button and we do the rest photographer” before many days are past to reel off in colour what he now can only accomplish in monochrome.

65. BY THE TERRACE, BROCKET HALL
From the Water-colour in the possession of Lord Mount-Stephen.
Painted 1900.

Portraiture of time-worn cottages where Nature has its way, and cottars’ gardens where flowers come and go at their own sweet will, is a very different thing from portraiture of a well-kept house, where the bricklayer and the mason are requisitioned when the slightest decay shows itself, and of gardens where formal ribbon borders are laid out by so-called landscape gardeners, whose taste always leans to bright colours not always massed in the happiest way. In portraits of houses license is hardly permissible even for artistic effects, for not only may associations be connected with every slope and turn of a path, but the artist always has before him the possibility that the drawing will be hung in close proximity to the scene, for comparison by persons who may not always be charitably disposed to artistic alterations. It speaks well, therefore, for Mrs. Allingham in the drawing of the garden at Brocket that she has produced a drawing which, without offending the conventions, is still a picture harmonious in colour, and probably very satisfying to the owner. There are few who would have cared to essay the very difficult drawing of cedars, and have accomplished it so well, or have laboured with so much care over the plain-faced house and windows. As to these latter she has been happy in assisting the sunlight in the picture by the drawn-down blinds at the angles which the sun reaches. The scene has clearly been pictured in the full blaze of summer.

Brocket Hall is a mansion some three miles north of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and a short distance off the Great North Road. It is one of a string of seats hereabouts which belong to Earl Cowper, but has been tenanted by Lord Mount-Stephen for some years. The house, which, as will be seen, has not much architectural pretensions, was built in the eighteenth century, but it is, to cite an old chronicle, “situate on a dry hill in a fair park well wooded and greatly timbered” through which the river Lea winds picturesquely. It is notable as having been the residence of two Prime Ministers, Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston. The drawing of “The Hawthorn Valley” ([Plate 37]) is taken from a part of the park.