Saturday, December 7, 2013

Drawing of the Day: Old Cottages at East Bergholt, 1940



Old Cottages at East Bergholt
Algernon Newton, 1940
The Victoria & Albert Musuem



This 1930 charcoal drawing is part of the “Recording Britain” initiative of World War II which served to capture the changing face of the British landscape.

The scene depicts East Bergholt, John Constable's home—an almost hallowed spot for landscape painter Algernon Newton (1880-1968). Newton had a particular affinity for “Constable Country.” While others in the Recording Britain program attempted to mask the encroaching passage of time on the landscape, Newton embraced it and made sure not to conceal modern marks such as the telephone poles and wires which we see to the left of the cottage.


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