Old Chapel of Hall Farm, Bodnick, Fowey, Cornwall

Images(2)

Old Chapel of Hall Farm, Bodnick, Fowey, Cornwall

Collections

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Date1943

Mediumwatercolor, opaque watercolor and ink with blue chalk and graphte pencil on wove paper

Dimensions17 1/8 × 21 3/8 in. (43.5 × 54.3 cm.)

SignedSigned and dated at lower right: John Piper 1943

InscribedSigned and dated at lower right: John Piper 1943

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Bequest of Dr. Alfred Leslie Rowse

Status

Not on view

Label TextOld buildings, especially rural and often ruined churches, had interested Piper since childhood. In his art, he approaches these structures much as British Romantic artists approached nature—as repositories for mood and sentiment. This watercolor is one of many that resulted from a trip the artist took to Cornwall in 1943. The ancient chapel emerges from a dark landscape built up with layers of densely applied pigment. The pale stones, though crumbling with age, are tinted with warm grays and tans. They glow against the deep browns and blacks, becoming a metaphor for endurance (2022).

Object number98.19

Exhibitions

20th Century British Works on Paper