Artwork
A Cornfield
A Cornfield is an oil painting by Peter De Wint. It dates from 1815 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Overview
Peter De Wint’s oil painting A Cornfield, completed in 1815, depicts a sun‑lit agricultural landscape now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Peter De Wint’s oil painting A Cornfield, completed in 1815, depicts a sun‑lit agricultural landscape now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The canvas presents a broad, golden field under a cloud‑filled sky, populated by figures engaged in harvest activities. The composition balances expansive terrain with intimate human presence, offering a snapshot of rural labor in the early nineteenth century.
Subject & Meaning
The work focuses on a working cornfield, where men and women are shown gathering and bundling stalks. Their attire reflects the period’s vernacular dress, and a few figures turn toward the viewer, creating a subtle dialogue between the scene and the audience. By emphasizing everyday toil, the painting conveys a quiet dignity of agrarian life and the seasonal rhythms that shaped community existence.
Technique & Style
De Wint employs a realistic approach, rendering the wheat’s texture and the sky’s shifting clouds with meticulous brushwork. The palette of warm ochres and muted blues enhances the naturalistic atmosphere, while careful attention to the figures’ clothing details adds depth. The overall effect is one of calm observation, achieved through precise rendering rather than dramatic flourish.
History & Provenance
A Cornfield was painted shortly after De Wint returned from his travels abroad, marking a period when he turned to domestic subjects. The painting entered the Victoria and Albert Museum’s holdings in the early twentieth century, where it has remained part of the museum’s British art collection, serving as an example of early nineteenth‑century landscape painting.
Artist & collection
Artist
Peter De Wint was a prolific English painter, mostly in landscape painting in oils and watercolour. A number of his pictures are in Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Collection, Lincoln. He died in London.
