Thorpe, Derbyshire

George Price Boyce

Date: 1879-80 

Materials: Watercolour

Subtle Harmonies

This is a deceptively simple piece, painted just after Boyce was elected as a full member of the Old Water Colour Society in 1878.

Although it has faded somewhat, it still shows Boyce's sensitivity to the subtle harmonies of an English Autumn landscape.

The setting is a village just north of Ashbourne, in the Peak District.

Stephens Criticism

Writing in the 'Athenaeum' in 1880, the critic F. G. Stephens thought the handling of the gate in the foreground to be "rather thin" but otherwise liked:

"a picture of sloping meadows, woodland, an ivy-clad church tower, a lane ending in a farm gate and a rough hedge. The whole is suffused by warm grey light, and the tenderness of the subtly graded local colouring of the sky, field and foliage is exquisite".