Thomas Uwins

A Study of Hops

c.1811

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Thomas Uwins 1782–1857
Medium: Graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 345 × 222 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased as part of the Oppé Collection with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund 1996
Reference: T08268

Display caption

Hop-picking had never been as popular a subject for British artists as the wheat harvest. This was partly because it lacked its religious associations, but also perhaps because the end product, beer, was a luxury (unlike bread). In 1807, Joshua Cristall sent a large watercolour of a hop harvest to the exhibition held by the Society of Painters in Watercolour. This may have inspired Uwins to add hop-pickers to his own range of rustic genre, for in 1811 he was making sketches in Farnham of the hop harvest. As well as this watercolour of hops, there are sketches by Uwins in the Oppé collection of workers picking and stripping hops. Hops were grown in Kent and Surrey and harvested by temporary workers, usually women and children from the East end of London.

Gallery label, August 2004

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