This late 19th-century oil painting by British artist Walter Waller Caffyn (1845-1897) depicts cattle by a stream near a wood. Caffyn was a Royal Academy-exhibited painter of naturalistic landscapes.
Illuminated by the radiant glow of summer, verdant foliage is rendered with an array of dappled tones. On the left, two cows pause by a restful stream, their patchwork forms reflecting in the water. While on the right, the complexity of a muddy bank is handled with dexterity and careful observation of various light effects.
Caffyn was a proponent of naturalism, capturing the beauty of nature as he saw it, without embellishment or contrivance. Born in Dorking, Surrey, he had inspiration on his doorstep - the picturesque rolling downs, abundant grasslands, and numerous winding rivers. Often, he’d sketch figures working the land, gathering crops and haymaking. Occasionally including farm buildings and carts laden with produce.
Apparently self-taught, he arrived into art a little later than most, beginning his career as a hairdresser. But as the years passed, his style evolved and he established himself as an artist of merit. His later works are reminiscent of his contemporaries, Henry Hillingford Parker (1858-1930) and David Bates (1840-1921), and perhaps Benjamin Williams Leader (1831-1923) was an inspiration.
He possessed a keen eye for the nuances of colouring, which abound in the natural world, and his compositions are often enlivened with a broad palette.
In 1874, he debuted at the Royal Society of British Artists with ‘On the Mole at Norbury’ and two years later, at the Royal Academy with ‘Burghfield Lock on the Kennet’.
But alas, in 1897, with his stock rising, he died prematurely at the age of 47 and we’re left to wonder what he might’ve become.
Caffyn is represented at Birmingham Museum, Dorking Museum and Glasgow Museum.
Signed/dated in the lower right and held within a later frame.
Learn more about Walter Waller Caffyn in our directory.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Overall size: 14½” x 18½” / 37cm x 47cm
Year of creation: 1897
Labels & Inscriptions: Richard Green Fine Paintings label on reverse.
Provenance: With Richard Green Fine Paintings, London / Private collection, UK.
Condition: Cleaned. Canvas relined. Frame in excellent condition.
Artist’s auction maximum: £16,000 for ‘Harvest Time, Ewhurst, Surrey (1891)’, Oil on canvas, Bonhams, 19th Century Paintings, London, 2002 (lot 136).
Our reference: BRV1959
