Study for Haymaking with Land Girls by Evelyn Dunbar

Oil on canvas, 1940. The full title is Study for Haymaking with Land Girls Training at Sparsholt Farm Institute. The Institute helped train land girls in agriculture, and Dunbar, as official war artist, was commissioned to document this. Some of the paintings she did were didactic in nature, illustrating processes – milking; stooking (gathering sheaves of grain).

Here, whilst she documents the process of turning and collecting the grass – presumably, the green collected grass is for fodder – the subject matter is lyrical. Perhaps the darker clouds indicate the on-goings of war, over the horizon, but it is summer here: the hedgerows are burgeoning; the grass is green; the waggon bright red and in this print the work seems pleasurable.

Price for print only.  Please contact us for framing options.