{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O120683"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O120683/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BV7619/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BV7619/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BV7619","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AW7569","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O120683/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O120683","accessionNumber":"E.1932-1949","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Castle Farm, Terrington St John, near King's Lynn","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"Recording Britain","type":"named collection"}],"summaryDescription":"Barbara Jones's enthusiasm for the old 'popular arts' associated with rural life and her dismay at their neglect and decay are apparent in this simple image of a Norfolk farmhouse.  The property seems eerily empty, the only living presence that of a dog lying in the grass and a cat curled up on a windowsill.  One shutter hanging askew seems to foreshadow the dilapidation that will overtake the farm.","physicalDescription":"A watercolour of a brick-and-plaster farmhouse with green trim sitting under a cloudy sky.  One of the shutters hangs slightly askew.  A dog lies on the grass in front of the house.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Jones, Barbara","id":"A2237"},"association":{"text":"painter (artist)","id":"AAT25136"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"bodycolour","id":"x34671"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour drawing","id":"x37878"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour and bodycolour painting on paper","categories":[{"text":"Recording Britain Collection","id":"THES48901"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2008BV7619","2006AW7569"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLH (VA)","id":"THES49654"},"free":"","case":"RB","shelf":"21","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Terrington St John","id":"x39471"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1942","earliest":"1942-01-01","latest":"1942-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the Pilgrim Trust","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"15","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"22","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'Barbara Jones 1942'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Signed by the artist, lower right"},{"content":"'Castle Farm, Terrington St John, nr King's Lynn'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed by the artist above signature, lower right"}],"objectHistory":"This work is from the 'Recording Britain' collection of topographical watercolours and drawings made in the early 1940s during the Second World War. In 1940 the Committee for the Employment of Artists in Wartime, part of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, launched a scheme to employ artists to record the home front in Britain, funded by a grant from the Pilgrim Trust. It ran until 1943 and some of the country's finest watercolour painters, such as John Piper, Sir William Russell Flint and Rowland Hilder, were commissioned to make paintings and drawings of buildings, scenes, and places which captured a sense of national identity. Their subjects were typically English: market towns and villages, churches and country estates, rural landscapes and industries, rivers and wild places, monuments and ruins. Northern Ireland was not covered, only four Welsh counties were included, and a separate scheme ran in Scotland.\r\n\r\nThe scheme was known as 'Recording the changing face of Britain' and was established by Sir Kenneth Clark, then the director of the National Gallery. It ran alongside the official War Artists' Scheme, which he also initiated. Clark was inspired by several motives: at the outbreak of war in 1939, there was a concern to document the British landscape in the face of the imminent threat of bomb damage, invasion, and loss caused by the operations of war. This was allied to an anxiety about changes to the landscape already underway, such as the rapid growth of cities, road building and housing developments, the decline of rural ways of life and industries, and new agricultural practices, which together contributed to the idea of a 'vanishing Britain'. Clark also wanted to help artists, and the traditional forms of British art such as watercolour painting, to survive during the uncertain conditions of wartime. He in turn was inspired by America's Federal Arts Project which was designed to give artists employment during the Great Depression of the 1930s.\r\n\r\nOver 1500 works were eventually produced by 97 artists, of whom 63 were specially commissioned. At the time the collection had a propaganda role, intended to boost national morale by celebrating Britain's landscapes and heritage. Three exhibitions were held during the war at the National Gallery, and pictures from the collection were sent on touring exhibitions and to galleries all around the country. After the war, the whole collection was given to the V&A by the Pilgrim Trust in 1949, and it was documented in a four volume catalogue published between 1946 and 1949. For many years the majority of the collection was on loan to councils and record offices in each county, until recalled by the V&A around 1990. The pictures now form a memorial to the war effort, and a unique record of their time.\n\nHistorical significance: Barbara Jones's work is notable for celebrating the old 'popular arts' associated with rural life and for lamenting the decay into which they were falling in an age of increasing mechanisation.  Signs of neglect and decay were common in her portrayals of Norfolk scenes; this one is no exception.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Watercolour, 'Castle Farm, Terrington St John, near King's Lynn', by Barbara Jones (Recording Britain, Norfolk).","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Catalogue of Drawings in the ‘Recording Britain’ Collection given by the Pilgrim Trust to the Victoria and Albert Museum</u> published by the Victoria and Albert Museum, Prints, Drawings and Paintings Department, 1951."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Palmer, Arnold, ed. <u>Recording Britain</u>. London: Oxford University Press, 1946-49.  Vol 2: Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, Northhamptonshire and Rutlandshire, Norfolk, Yorkshire.  Introduction to Norfolk, p.145."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Terrington St John","id":"x39471"},{"text":"Norfolk","id":"x29040"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"Second World War","id":"V72"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"farmhouses","id":"AAT5574"},{"text":"topographical views","id":"AAT15566"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.1932-1949"],"accessionNumberNum":"1932","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1949,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2006-01-26","availableToBook":false}}