Watercolour and ink on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-piper-1774" aria-label="More by John Piper" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Piper</a>
Dairy Fawley Court
Purchased 1940
agricultural
arch
architecture
chapel
dairy
England
England, South East
England, Southern
features
Henley-on-Thames, Fawley Court
Oxfordshire
periods and styles
places
religious
Romanesque
tree
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
<p>Piper lived near this Romanesque building in Oxfordshire. In 1940 he was beginning to make works of art out of his interest in British architecture. This is one of many drawings in which he imitated the monochrome but very clear studies by John Sell Cotman, who had drawn churches in Norfolk early in the nineteenth century.</p><p>It is disappointing that it was such a modest painting as this that was the first of Piper’s works to be acquired by the Tate Gallery.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2008</em></p>
paper unique watercolour ink
14 November 2003 – 3 May 2004
2004-05-03
14 November 2003 – 14 March 2004
2004-03-14
2003-11-14
River and Rowing Museum (Henley on Thames, UK)
http://www.rrm.co.uk
22 March 2004 – 3 May 2004
2004-05-03
2004-03-22
Oxfordshire Museum (Woodstock, UK)
http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk
2003-11-14
Piper's Thames
Loan-out
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
4 March 2014 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
2014-03-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-03-04
Ruin Lust
Exhibition
The Dairy, Fawley Court
support: 527 × 400 mm
Purchased 1940
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text7">Piper lived near this Romanesque building in      Oxfordshire. In 1940 he was beginning to make works of art out of his      interest  in British architecture. This is one of many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> in which he      imitated the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/monochrome" title="Glossary definition for 'Monochrome'"><span>monochrome</span></a> but very clear studies by </span><span class="text15">John</span><span class="text16"> Sell Cotman, who had drawn      churches</span><span class="text7"> in Norfolk early in the nineteenth      century. </span>
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<div class="para9">
<span class="text7">
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<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text14">It is disappointing that it was such a modest</span><span class="text7"> <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> as this that was the first of Piper’s      works to be acquired by the Tate Gallery. </span>
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2008-07-30T00:00:00
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DISPLAY_CAPTION
<div class="text1"><span class="Strong">The Dairy, Fawley Court</span><span>
1940</span>
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<div class="text1"><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/piper-the-dairy-fawley-court-n05215" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05215</span></a>
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<div class="text1">Pen and ink and watercolour on paper
<br/>527 x 400 (20 3/4 x 15 3/4) 
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<div class="text1">Inscribed in faded writing ink 'John Piper | 1940' b.r.
<br/>Label on backboard inscribed in another hand in red ink 'John Piper | No 4268 | Palace Pier Brighton' and in black ink 'SO' 
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<div class="text1">Purchased from the artist through the Leicester Galleries, London (Clarke Fund and Grant-in-Aid) 1940 
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<div class="text1">Exhibited:
<br/><span class="Emphasis">Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Artists of Fame and Promise</span>, Leicester Galleries, London, Summer 1940 (6)
<br/><span class="Emphasis">Tate Gallery Wartime Acquisitions</span>, National Gallery, London, April-May 1942 (92)
<br/><span class="Emphasis">A Selection from the Tate Gallery's Wartime Acquisitions</span>, Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts tour, Royal Exchange, London, July-Aug. 1942, Cheltenham Art Gallery, Sept., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Oct., Galleries of Birmingham Society of Arts, Nov.-Dec., Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Jan.-Feb. 1943, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, Feb-March, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, March-April, Manchester City Art Gallery, April-May, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, May-June, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, June, Glasgow Museum and Art Gallery, Kelvingrove, July, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, Aug. 1943 (65)
<br/><span class="Emphasis">Modern British Pictures from the Tate Gallery</span>, British Council tour, 1946-7, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Jan.-Feb. 1946 (65), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, March (65), Raadhushallen, Copenhagen, April-May (65), Musée de Jeu de Paume, Paris, June-July (65), Musée des Beaux Arts, Berne, Aug. (66), Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna, Sept. (67), Narodni Galerie, Prague, Oct.-Nov. (67), Muzeum Narodne, Warsaw, Nov.-Dec. (67), Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Jan.-Feb. 1947 (67)
<br/><span class="Emphasis">Continental Exhibition: Modern British Pictures from the Tate Gallery Exhibited Under the Auspices of the British Council</span>, Tate Gallery, London May-Sept.1947; publication supplemented as <span class="Emphasis">Fifty Years Tate Gallery 1897-1947: Pictures from the Tate Gallery Foundation Gift and Exhibition of Subsequent British Painting</span>, (no number)
<br/><span class="Emphasis">Modern British Pictures from the Tate Gallery</span>, Arts Council tour 1947-8, Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, Sept.-Oct.1947, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, Oct.-Nov., Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, Nov.-Dec., Birkenhead, Williamson Art Gallery, Jan.1948, Bristol City Art Gallery, Jan.-Feb. 1948, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth, Feb-March, Brighton Art Gallery and Museum, March-April, Plymouth City Art Gallery, April-May, Castle Museum, Nottingham, May-June, Huddersfield Museum and Art Gallery, June-July, Aberdeen Art Gallery, July-Aug., Salford Art Gallery and Museum, Aug.-Sept. (45)
<br/><span class="Emphasis">John Piper: Georgian Arcadia, an Exhibition to Mark the Golden Jubilee of the Georgian Group</span>, Marlborough Fine Art, London, Sept.-Oct. 1987 (7, repr.) 
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<div class="text1">Literature:
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <span class="Emphasis">Tate Gallery: The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</span>, II, London 1965, p.522
<br/>Howard Colvin, 'Introduction', <span class="Emphasis">John Piper: Georgian Arcadia</span>, exh. cat., Marlborough Fine Art, London 1987, p.7 
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<div class="text1">Reproduced:
<br/>S. John Woods, <span class="Emphasis">John Piper: Paintings, Drawings and Theatre Designs</span>, London 1955, pl.90 
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<div class="text1"><span class="Emphasis">The Dairy, Fawley Court</span> was painted on medium weight white laid <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/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a>, which the artist had soaked and gummed to board with brown tape, strips of which (<span class="Emphasis">c</span>.5 mm wide) underlie the image on all sides (Tate Gallery conservation files). Planned in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a>, the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> was applied and rubbed down to create the illusion of the fall of light. The colour range is subdued, with the focus upon the architectural details added in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a>. The artist had made <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a> of Brighton a year earlier and seems to have transferred the backing board from a view of the town. 
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<div class="text1">Piper made several watercolours at Fawley Court near his home outside Henley-on-Thames, including <span class="Emphasis">View of the Folly, Fawley Court</span> (collection Miss M.F.E. MacKenzie, no known repr.), and <span class="Emphasis">The River Approach, Fawley Court</span>, 1940 (V&amp;A, repr. <span class="Emphasis">Recording Britain</span>, I, London 1946, p.169). In terms conveying his topographical and architectural interests, he described the dairy as 'a 19th cent. picturesque outbuilding ... in which Romanesque remains of a Henley chapel ... were incorporated' (letter to Tate Gallery, 15 July 1958). Nikolaus Pevsner specified that the doorway came 'from a house in Hart Street, Henley' (<span class="Emphasis">The Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire</span>, Harmondsworth 1960, p.135), while Howard Colvin identified this picturesque conjunction as part of a campaign of building for John Freedman in the mid-eighteenth century (Howard Colvin, 'Introduction', <span class="Emphasis">John Piper: Georgian Arcadia</span>, exh. cat., Marlborough Fine Art, London 1987, p.7). The 'beakhead decoration' noted by Pevsner is clearly shown by Piper, and reappears in a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> of the chancel arch at <span class="Emphasis">St Peter's Stanton Low</span> inscribed 'April 21 1940' (V&amp;A, repr. Anthony West, <span class="Emphasis">John Piper</span>, London 1979, p.113, fig.64). 
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<div class="text1">With John Betjeman, Piper shared an enthusiasm for antiquarian and topographical investigation typified by his <span class="Emphasis">Shell Guide to Oxfordshire</span> (London 1938), which was commissioned by the poet. In 1940, Piper contributed both <span class="Emphasis">The River Approach, Fawley Court</span> and <span class="Emphasis">St Peter's Stanton Low</span> to the Recording Britain project (repr. <span class="Emphasis">Recording Britain</span>, I, London 1946, pp.169,181) supported by the Pilgrim Trust, which sought to record 'buildings of national interest' ('Introduction', ibid., p.v) under threat from the war and from urban development. <span class="Emphasis">The Dairy, Fawley Court</span> could be placed under the fourth of Sir Kenneth Clark's proposed categories: 'Country Houses and their Parks' (David Mellor, 'A History and Outline', <span class="Emphasis">Recording Britain: A Pictorial Domesday of Pre-War Britain</span>, London 1990, p.10). It also shared the factual watercolour style of the project which was distinct from the schematic planes of Piper's contemporary topographical oil <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>paintings</span></a>. The watercolour was the first of his works to enter the Tate collection and, although bought before the first <span class="Emphasis">Recording Britain</span> exhibition (National Gallery, Aug.-Sept. 1941), it exemplifies a move towards the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/neo-romanticism" title="Glossary definition for 'Neo-Romanticism'"><span>Neo-Romantic</span></a> cataloguing of architecture epitomised by <span class="Emphasis">Seaton Delaval</span>, 1941 (Tate Gallery <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/N05748" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'N05748');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>N05748</span></a>). 
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<div class="text1">Matthew Gale
<br/>August 1996
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
agricultural arch architecture chapel dairy England England, South East England, Southern features Henley-on-Thames, Fawley Court Oxfordshire periods and styles places religious Romanesque tree UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions