Homewards

This scene shows a girl leading home a calf and cow through a meadow around milking time. A silvery light reflects off her back and that of the cow. The pastel-like tones of purple and green seem to blend together as if in a watercolour.

Paisley-born painter William Kennedy (1859-1918) had taken an interest in rural subjects since his early career, when he trained under the French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) in Paris. In the 1890s Kennedy and his wife moved to Berkshire where he painted idealised and atmospheric interpretations of rural themes. He took a special interest in painting sunlight effects and orchards in blossom, and perfected his style of meticulous and smooth brushwork, which seems to create the effect of a soft-focus lens.

The motif of a girl leading animals through a field was a subject often tackled by the Glasgow Boys painters. The most famous example is James Guthrie's To Pastures New (1883). Aside from Guthrie's influence Kennedy may have also been inspired by the work of the Hague School painters, especially Anton Mauve (1838-1888), who was known as the master of such 'silver light'.

Credit: Purchased, 1960