Philip Wilson Steer

Bird-nesting, Ludlow

1898

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Not on display

Artist: Philip Wilson Steer 1860–1942
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 571 x 927 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1937
Reference: N04955

Display caption

In the late 1890s Steer moved on from his Impressionist style, in which he had painted sunlit views of children beside the sea. He began to paint landscapes in which he set out to display what he considered the most beautiful countryside of Britain. He was guided by Turner to the spectacular British castles, and from Constable learned the attraction of woods and windy hilltops. The foregrounds of Turner's oil paintings sometimes include children playing country games, as with these children stealing birds' eggs. Steer returned to Ludlow often, as a favourite place.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

N04955 BIRDS NESTING, LUDLOW 1898

Inscr. ‘P W Steer 98’ b.l.
Canvas, 22 1/2×36 1/2 (57×92·5).
Chantrey Purchase from Barbizon House 1937.
Coll: Sir Cyril Kendall Butler by 1902.
Exh: N.E.A.C., November–December 1898 (93), as ‘Birds-nesting’; Art & Industrial Exhibition, Wolverhampton, 1902 (150); Representative Works by some of the Foremost Painters of the British School, Goupil Gallery, June–July 1921 (30), as ‘Birds Nesting’; Barbizon House, May 1927 (5); Jubilee Exhibition, Bradford, 1930 (140); Loan Exhibition of Important Landscapes, Tooth's, April 1933 (29); Empire Art Loan, Australia, New Zealand and Tate Gallery, 1935 (222); Barbizon House, April–May 1937 (1), as ‘Bird-nesting, Ludlow’; R.A., 1938 (38).
Lit: MacColl, 1945, p.199.
Repr: Barbizon House Record, 1937, No.5.