The Old Farm Garden

The combination of careful observation and poetic idealisation is characteristic of Frederick Walker’s landscapes, which often focus on solitary figures. Here, an elegant woman, modelled by the artist’s sister, calmly knits in a walled garden, unaware of the cat poised to pounce on her ball of wool. Admired for its bright colour and close attention to detail, this watercolour was considered by the influential art critic John Ruskin to be ‘worth all the Dutch flower-pieces in the world.’