Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/evelyn-dunbar-1041" aria-label="More by Evelyn Dunbar" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Evelyn Dunbar</a>
A Land Girl and Bail Bull
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
adults
agricultural
agriculture and fishing
animals: mammals
architecture
cow
England
England, South East
England, Southern
farmland
garden structures
Hampshire
Hampshire Downs
history
home front
landscape
livestock pen
military: World War II
milkmaid
people
places
shed
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
woman
Women’s Land Army
work and occupations
<p>Dunbar was working as a mural painter before she was appointed an Official War Artist in 1940. She was commissioned to record the ‘Land Army’ at work. This picture, she said, was ‘painted at Strood towards the end of the war, about 1944-5. It is an imaginative painting of a Land Girl’s work with an outdoor dairy herd on the Hampshire Downs. The bail is the moveable shed where the milking is done ... the girl has to catch and tether the bull: she entices him with a bucket of fodder and hides the chain behind her, ready to snap on to the ring in his nose as soon as it is within her reach.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, June 2018</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
1 February 2001 – 2 June 2003
2003-06-02
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2001-02-01
Modern British Art II
Collection based display
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
2005-06-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-06-15
A Picture of Britain
Exhibition
9 September 2006 – 18 November 2006
2006-11-18
9 September 2006 – 18 November 2006
2006-11-18
2006-09-09
St Barbe Museum (Lymington, UK)
http://www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk/
2006-09-09
Evelyn Dunbar 1906-60
Loan-out
18 October 2008 – 10 January 2009
2009-01-10
18 October 2008 – 10 January 2009
2009-01-10
2008-10-18
St Barbe Museum (Lymington, UK)
http://www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk/
2008-10-18
Representing the Women's Land Army
Loan-out
1 October 2009 – 1 March 2010
2010-03-01
1 October 2009 – 1 March 2010
2010-03-01
2009-10-01
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (Brighton, UK)
http://www.brighton.virtualmuseum.info
2009-10-01
The Land Girls: Cinderellas of the Soil exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Loan-out
6 October 2010 – 25 April 2011
2011-04-25
6 October 2010 – 30 January 2011
2011-01-30
2010-10-06
Millennium Gallery (Sheffield, UK)
http://www.sheffieldgalleries.org.uk
19 February 2011 – 25 April 2011
2011-04-25
2011-02-19
Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery (Norwich, UK)
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk
9 May 2011 – 6 November 2011
2011-11-06
2011-05-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-10-06
GBAD: Restless Times: Modern British Art 1914 - 1945
Loan-out
13 May 2013 – 7 April 2019
2019-04-07
13 May 2013 – 7 April 2019
2019-04-07
2013-05-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-05-13
Gallery 32
Collection based display
5 May 2022 – 4 September 2022
2022-09-04
5 May 2022 – 4 September 2022
2022-09-04
2022-05-05
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
1 October 2022 – 22 January 2023
2023-01-22
2022-10-01
Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK)
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
2022-05-05
Radical Landscapes
Exhibition
7 October 2022 – 18 February 2024
2024-02-18
7 October 2022 – 18 December 2022
2022-12-18
2022-10-07
Mead Gallery (Coventry, UK)
http://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk
2022-10-07
Radical Landscapes
Loan-out
13 September 2025 – 10 January 2026
2026-01-10
13 September 2025 – 10 January 2026
2026-01-10
2025-09-13
St Barbe Museum (Lymington, UK)
http://www.stbarbe-museum.org.uk/
2025-09-13
The Life of the Fields
Loan-out
A Land Girl and the Bail Bull
support: 914 × 1829 mm
frame: 1085 × 2000 × 80 mm
Presented by the War Artists Advisory Committee 1946
<div class="text">
<p>Dunbar was working as a mural painter before she was appointed an Official War Artist in 1940. She was commissioned to record the ‘Land Army’ at work. This picture, she said, was ‘painted at Strood towards the end of the war, about 1944-5. It is an imaginative painting of a Land Girl’s work with an outdoor dairy herd on the Hampshire Downs. The bail is the moveable shed where the milking is done ... the girl has to catch and tether the bull: she entices him with a bucket of fodder and hides the chain behind her, ready to snap on to the ring in his nose as soon as it is within her reach.’</p>
</div>

Display caption
2018-06-14T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05688</b> A LAND GIRL AND THE BAIL BULL 1945
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Evelyn Dunbar 45’ b.r.
<br/>Canvas, 36×72 (91×183).
<br/>Presented by the War Artists' Advisory Committee 1946.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> <i>National War Pictures</i>, R.A., October–November 1945 (981).</p>
<p>The artist wrote (7 May 1956): ‘Painted at Strood towards the end of the war, about 1944–5. It is an imaginative <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> of a Land Girl's work with an outdoor dairy herd on the Hampshire Downs. The bail is the movable shed where the milking is done. Soon after dawn in the early summer the girl has to catch and tether the bull: she entices him with a bucket of fodder and hides the chain behind her, ready to snap on to the ring in his nose as soon as it is within her reach - a delicate and dangerous job.’</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-08T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults agricultural agriculture and fishing animals: mammals architecture cow England England, South East England, Southern farmland garden structures Hampshire Hampshire Downs history home front landscape livestock pen military: World War II milkmaid people places shed UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features woman Women’s Land Army work and occupations