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Lot Essay
George William Mote began life as gardener to Sir Thomas Phillips of Middle Hill, near Broadway, Worcestershire. The scenery to which he would have been exposed, in the heart of the English countryside, must have inspired him to begin painting his surroundings. He produced numerous landscape paintings in the mid-nineteenth century, depicting areas such as the Sussex Weald, the vale of Arundel and the Malvern Hills.
Although titled The garden of England, there is nothing that strongly identifies the present scene as Kentish. There are, for example, no sign of the oast houses or hop gardens that characterised the Weald at that time. The horizon suggests the area north of Sevenoaks, immortalised by Samuel Palmer, although the scenery also bears a strong likeness to Worcestershire or Sussex, both of which the artist painted frequently. Mote depicts draw horses preparing to remove fallen or felled timber, and a group of rather romanticised rustics negotiating with either the bailiff or farmer.
We are grateful to Paul Donovan for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
Although titled The garden of England, there is nothing that strongly identifies the present scene as Kentish. There are, for example, no sign of the oast houses or hop gardens that characterised the Weald at that time. The horizon suggests the area north of Sevenoaks, immortalised by Samuel Palmer, although the scenery also bears a strong likeness to Worcestershire or Sussex, both of which the artist painted frequently. Mote depicts draw horses preparing to remove fallen or felled timber, and a group of rather romanticised rustics negotiating with either the bailiff or farmer.
We are grateful to Paul Donovan for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.