Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/philip-wilson-steer-1990" aria-label="More by Philip Wilson Steer" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Philip Wilson Steer</a>
Birdnesting Ludlow
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1937
bird nesting
child
children
cloud
England
England, Midlands
hill
landscape
leisure and pastimes
Ludlow - non-specific
natural phenomena
people
places
recreational activities
shadow
Shropshire
sunshine
tree
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
weather
<p>In the late 1890s Steer moved on from his Impressionist style, in which he had painted sunlit views of children beside the sea. He began to paint landscapes in which he set out to display what he considered the most beautiful countryside of Britain. He was guided by Turner to the spectacular British castles, and from Constable learned the attraction of woods and windy hilltops. The foregrounds of Turner's oil paintings sometimes include children playing country games, as with these children stealing birds' eggs. Steer returned to Ludlow often, as a favourite place.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
31 October 2022
4 October 2021
2021-10-04
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2022-10-31
Gallery 8
Collection based display
Bird-nesting, Ludlow
support: 571 × 927 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1937
<div class="text">
<p>Philip Wilson Steer’s sea and landscape paintings captured fleeting moments of activity and weather. Here, children steal birds’ eggs at the bottom of a sloping hill. The sunlight surrounding them is dramatic and shadows are created in just a few brushstrokes. By the time Steer painted this landscape, he had turned to a more traditional English style influenced by JMW Turner and John Constable. He set out to paint what he considered the most beautiful countryside of Britain and returned to Ludlow often, as a favourite place.</p>
</div>

Online caption
2023-11-29T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
<p><b>N04955</b>	BIRDS NESTING, LUDLOW 1898</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Inscr. ‘P W Steer 98’ b.l.
<br/>Canvas, 22 1/2×36 1/2 (57×92·5).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from Barbizon House 1937.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Sir Cyril Kendall Butler by 1902.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> N.E.A.C., November–December 1898 (93), as ‘Birds-nesting’; <i>Art &amp; Industrial Exhibition</i>, Wolverhampton, 1902 (150); <i>Representative Works by some of the Foremost Painters of the British School,</i> Goupil Gallery, June–July 1921 (30), as ‘Birds Nesting’; Barbizon House, May 1927 (5); <i>Jubilee Exhibition,</i> Bradford, 1930 (140); <i>Loan Exhibition of Important Landscapes</i>, Tooth's, April 1933 (29); <i>Empire Art Loan,</i>
Australia, New Zealand and Tate Gallery, 1935 (222); Barbizon House, April–May 1937 (1), as ‘Bird-nesting, Ludlow’; R.A., 1938 (38).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> MacColl, 1945, p.199.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Barbizon House Record</i>, 1937, No.5.</p>
<p>Executed during the second of Steer's three visits to Ludlow.</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, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
bird nesting child children cloud England England, Midlands hill landscape leisure and pastimes Ludlow - non-specific natural phenomena people places recreational activities shadow Shropshire sunshine tree UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions weather