Objektnummer
2009/76/3
Titel
The Farm Cottage,
Upphovsman
Beskrivning
This is the accompanying leaflet for a ceramic decorated plated, manufactured by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons of Barlaston, Staffordshire, in 1988. The plate is entitled 'The Farm Cottage' and is part of the series 'Country Panorama', depicting a 360° panoramic view of the countryside, designed by the artist Colin Newman. The plate depicts a a thatched cottage with various wildlife, including a magpie, rabbits, sparrows and butterflies.
Arkivhistorik
MERL 'Handwritten accession' form (Museum of English Rural Life) – 'Decorated plate showing a thatched cottage in the middle distance with various wildlife - including a magpie, rabbits, sparrows and butterfly in the foreground. // Information on the back says that this is plate no. 2242 B of 'The the Farm Cottage' by Colin Newman which is the sixth subject in Colin Newman's "Country Panorama" depicting a 360° panoramic view of the countryside. // Made by Josiah Wedgwood + Sons Ltd, Barlaston, Stoke on Trent. // Dated 1988. // 2009/76/1 Plate // 2009/76/2 Box // 2009/76/3 Leaflet // 2009/76/4 Certificate // 2009/76/5 Title Card // Dimensions // Plate diameter 21 cm // Box 24.5 x 25 x 6.5 cm. // Purchased as part of the Collecting 20thc Rural Culture project. // Address on box shows that it was originally sold to Mr W. H. E Podger, ...Wadhurst, E. Sussex... // Colin Newman was brought up in E. Anglia and studied at Cambridge School of Art and Hornsey College of Art.', Leaflet - 'The Farm Cottage // Sixth issue in Colin Newman's Country Panorama, a collector's plate series that captures the breadth and depth of England's idyllic countryside in a full panorama. Presented on Wedgwood Fine Bone China and produced in an edition limited to 150 firing days. // There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, // The earth, and every common sight, // To me did seem // Apparelled in celestial light, // The glory and the freshness of a dream. // - William Wordsworth. // Colin Newman's Country Panorama // The warm, gentle breeze is lightly scented with the perfume of wild roses. A fox runs down a grassy hillside and slips unnoticed past a snug, whitewashed cottage. Swallows wing their way across the blue sky while two fawns pause in the shadowed forest, ears pointed this way and that at the call of the warbler. // It is as if the artist has just beckoned us to his window to unveil the quiet splendour that lies just outside. Here in Colin Newman's Country Panorama is England as the poets have written of her, England as her countryfolk have loved her, far from the hubbub of London, where only the lowing of a cow and the hum of crickets break the stillness. // For centuries, the verdant expanse of the English countryside - field and stream, woodland and farm - has inspired poets and artists. Indeed, one wonders whether Keats himself was not glancing out his window when he wrote, 'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'. Now the English countryside has become the inspiration for a new collector's plate series that brings together every detail of its tranquil beauty in a 360° panorama. Artist Colin Newman has gathered months of observation and study into a single moment: a lovely summation of the countryside in an unprecedented blending of scientific accuracy and romantic realism. // Country Panorama represents a new direction in collector's plates, for no one plate can properly be said to be complete unto itself. Only when all are displayed together does the glorious panorama unfold before our eyes. The series has no beginning or ending; the artwork is not confined by individual plate rims but moves smoothly, effortlessly, from plate to plate. The fox lopes past cottage and through woodland as the swallows dip and dive overhead; the babbling stream that appears in one plate tumbles down the hillside in another; and lush trees outstretch their branches in a never-ending sweep of greenery. // Colin Newman spent years doing scientific and technical illustration and honing his talents as a nature artist before attempting to depict his beloved English countryside in all its absorbing detail. And how well he has succeeded! Not even the smallest incident has escaped his observant eye: the fin of a trout disturbs the stream's placid surface, and a gnat is pursued by a hungry skylark. And, as we would expect from a naturalist painted, even the tiniest creature is exactingly, anatomically correct. // Nor is man's presence in the countryside overlooked. In one plate, we spy the ancient ruins of an abbey along the distant horizon; in another, a cluster of tidy buildings that is the local village. Here man and nature share their domains companionably, peaceably. Man's dwellings complement rather than mar the loveliness of the land; the pheasant is at home at the edge of the grassy meadow, and the cow does not shy at the stealthy presence of the red fox. // Yet, for all its attention to detail, Country Panorama has an enchanting quality of fantasy to it. While each animal and bird is drawn with exacting accuracy, we would never see all of them together at the same location - or during the same season. The pheasant does not keep the same hours as the fox, who would ordinarily be curled away in his nest during the day; golden ripening wheat is an improbable backdrop for spring's pink wild roses. Nor would we be able to pick a top on a hilltop, turn around in a full circle, and see every kind of scenery possible in the English countryside as we see it here. Colin Newman's accomplishment is truly remarkable: here is England in un-dreamed-of perfection, an England we could never hope to see, no matter how many walks we took through field and forest - and yet, not native and visitor alike, and England that is immediately familiar, wonderfully real. // Only an artist willing to invest his life exploring one small corner of the world could re-create that land so well, and it is this, in the final analysis, that elevates Country Panorama above even the most masterful technical illustration. This is not a clinical examination of flora fauna, but rather the portrait of a man's home. In each flower and animal, we see not just the beauty of England, we see an artist's love for her as well.'
Produktionsplats
Barlaston
Datum
1988 - 1988
Objektnamn