A Hayfield, Bedfordshire

William Fraser Garden's watercolours are a demonstration of the late nineteenth-century revival of painstakingly observed realism. His landscapes are almost photographic in their detail with crisp colouring. The present lot displays this precision, which perfectly captures the stillness of the calm day and transports the viewer to the Hayfields in Bedfordshire.

William Garden Fraser was born at Chatham, Kent, shortly before his father retired from the Army Medical Department. The Frasers were a Scottish family, but the Surgeon Major, his wife and nine children settled in Bedford where their seven sons were educated at Bedford School. Six of the seven boys became artists, and Garden changed his name to William Fraser Garden in order to distinguish himself from his brothers.