The title of this work of art is named summer in Cumberland. It was painted in 1925 by James Durden which has collected in the Manchester Art Gallery. The dimension of this painting is 101.5x101.5cm. Durden used oil to pain on canvas.
James Durden (1878-1964) was born in Manchester. Before studying at the Royal College of Art in London, James Durden studied at Manchester School of Art in Manchester. He later lived at Keswick in the Lake District. In 1927, he continually won a silver medal at the Paris Salon. Throughout the rest of his career, he exhibited his art of works around the South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
Regarding to this work of art, we can see a sitting room scene, looking through …show more content…
This kind of leisure environment attracted me at the first sight. Looking the piece of art work in detail carefully, the tone of the painting is muted and romantic. Durden used flowing and soft lines to paint this delicate work of art. With its wonderful sense of balance, Durden painted in bright and vibrant colour to draw the contours of a sitting room scene. Especially focus on the bright sunlight falls through the window then across the floor. Because Durden painted this picture in oil on a canvas, therefore, the whole painting looks like a little bit rough and uneven on the surface. To sum up, this painting is more a late example of Edwardian genre painting rather than Impressionist the painting evokes a popular distillation of Impressionist in its strong sunlight and light, airy colours.
This idyllic vision of Summer in Cumberland was painted from Durden’s house, Skiddaw Bank overlooking Derwent Water. The three people in the painting are the artist’s family. As we can see from the picture, the artist has an upper-class family. The older lady wears a dark dignity robe and the younger lady, wearing in a white long robe. Covering sheets on both the bed and sofa which are printed with beautiful decorative patterns. Regarding to the scenery outside the window, the house is located in the countryside. Mountains, rivers, Trees, flowers are around the artist’s