Location: Youlgrave, Derbyshire, UK
Subject: Landscape
Medium: Oils
Date: 1905
Signature: Arthur Hammond
Dimensions: 25 cm x 36 cm
Knighton-Hammond adapted his paint-handling to the specific scene and weather conditions. Here he has painted a scene of Youlgrave under a blanket of snow in the winter of 1905 when he moved there from London and settled in the village. The buildings in the Derbyshire vernacular style are emblematic in the snow-covered landscape. The stone walls defined the road and field boundaries breaking up the areas rendered in colours of white and pale greyish blues. Paint at the depicted road surface is thicker than elsewhere in the painting and impasto is suggestive of the feel of disturbed snow. The lone figure walking in the road towards the spectator gives a sense of movement to an otherwise hushed composition in newly fallen snow. Aerial perspective is cleverly achieved to give depth using chromatic virtuosity with a restricted palette with subtle gradation of tones. This oil painting was purchased by the present owner direct from the artist’s studio in 1968. The painting must have meant a lot to Knighton-Hammond to have retained in his studio for more than 60 years!