Joseph Mallord William Turner

This painting was shown at the Royal Academy in 1796, along with Turner's first exhibited oil, 'Fishermen at Sea' (represented in this display by a photograph on the facing wall), which also features a dramatic scheme of light within a dark space. Here Turner's Picturesque interest in rustic domesticity has been developed through the influence of the tonalities and parallel subject matter of seventeenth century Dutch genre painting. This is perhaps directly acknowledged by the inclusion of a piece of blue and white Delft style pottery in the left foreground.

Gallery label, September 2004

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