Brian Hatton

In 1904, the artist Brian Hatton, spent the summer at the family home, Mount Craig, in Hereford. He was occupied drawing and painting in the countryside. This pencil drawing on paper was created at this time. Itinerent workers and gypsies working in the fields was a favourite subject for Brian Hatton. In his early works such as Horse Fair and Sanger's Circus, Hatton portrays a carefree life but in these later studies there emerges an empathy and awarenesss of the hardships of life on the road. He continued to work on this theme and in January 1906 he created a particularly masterly drawing, Turnip Pullers Resting. He referred to this work in a letter written from Oxford to his mother dated 31 January 1906. 'Hahn & Co liked the Turnip Cutters very much. This pencil drawing is now held in the collection of drawings at the British Museum. It has been observed that these drawings are derivative of the work of Millet and it is known that Brian Hatton admired Millet's work. However, these drawings created by Hatton in 1904-1906 are particularly evocative of certain works of Vincent Van Gogh 1853-1890. See A Peasant Woman Digging (1885). This is now in the collection at the Barber Institute in Birmingham."