Another 12x12 oil on canvas depicting another spring day, to remind us of what we are still missing. It's a view of a field on the edge of the Field Farm south path.
In the Turner biography by Anthony Bailey, the author notes Turner's desire to improve the status of landscape painting to the same level as history and portrait painting. Bailey writes, "...there were those who shared the alleged opinion of the French painter Francois Boucher... that nature was 'too green and badly lit.'" If Boucher did say that, it's funny coming from someone whose paintings I once heard described as 'they look like someone's house where the lights are on, but nobody's home.' This gives us an idea of the opposition Turner faced regarding landscape painting, and how far we have come. But Boucher's words are funny also because, unfortunately, they are too often true about landscape. However, I do miss some of the green right now.
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