A Harvest Shower

Wilkie Collins, in "Memoirs of the Life of William COllins, Esq., R.A.," London, 1848, vol. 1, p. 70, relates the following genesis of this picture:

"The 'Harvest Shower' was suggested on a visit to Windsor, by a beautiful effect, produced durring a shower, by the appearance of bright clouds behind falling rain. As soon as he perceived it, although reminded by his companion, Mr. Stark, of an engagement they had the moment before been hastened to fulfill, Mr. Collins produced his sketchbook; and careless alike of rain and punctuality, made a study of the scene, which he afterwards transferred to canvass, and exhibited as above related."

The rolling expance of landscape is bisected by a stream. At the left, in the immediate foreground, a young man seated on a log is baiting his fishing line. His jacket lies on the ground beside a hamper. Further left, are several gnarled trees and some vegetation including poppies and burdock. A girl and a young boy carrying bundles of wheat make their way towards the viewer along a path that extends back into a distant field in which grain is being harvested. Beyond is a wood in which there are a number of houses and in the remote background hills rise. The bank of the stream in the right foreground is lost in shadow. Cattle graze in the fields further back, and a couple of spires are visible through the woods in the background on the right side. The most startling feature of this composition is the juxtaposition of the dark rain clouds against the sunlit sky.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Isaac Currie, 1819 [mode of acquisition unknown]; J .D. Ichenhauser Sale, New York, 1903, no. 73, illus.; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1903, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by purchase.