Milking Time, Early Morn

In the present work, the cows have been brought to the byre before dawn for milking. Although it appears to be still lit, the lantern, hooked up to a beam, is no longer required, because during the process the sun has risen. Its illumination however, tells us that the stall is an old primitive structure with not much head room. The chickens or geese in the yard may have been roused. Her task complete, the girl pours the milk into a metal churn. There is a calm elegiac quality about the action. But it is, in the end, inconsequential.

This fully documents the story of Milking Time, Early Morn. Another rural ritual has been performed. For the painter, the observation of these simple things was enough in itself. Stott, in resorting to Amberley in 1887, was turning away from the painting tours with Walter Osborne and Blandford Fletcher, which characterised his early years as a New English exhibitor. He was now submerging himself in village life, and the radius of a few miles, was henceforth to supply his subject matter. Surveying the oeuvre, we have a coherent and comprehensive view of rural life, which looks particularly upon the humble daily duties, rather than the maypole dances and harvest festivals. In this sense works like Milking Time, Early Morn, become the equivalent of Dutch genre scenes which concentrate upon the simple commerce of daily life.

K.M.