DOI issue:
No. 90 (August, 1904)
DOI article:Holland, Clive: The work of Frederick Whitehead, a painter of Thomas Hardy's "Wessex"
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26962#0155
A Painter of Hardy s IVissex
a number of pictures, all of Wessex scenery, amongst
the more important of which we may mention The
Old Mill at Corfe Mullen and Meadows near Wim-
borne ; A Frosty Morning in the Frome Valley, near
Wool, a soft, impressionistic study of flooded
meadows, the prevailing tones of which are yellows
and yellow-reds; a picture of Gorse in Bloom, with
a strong sky; a Wessex homestead near East Stoke,
in the Frome Valley; and a Vitiv of Pu?-beck Hills
from Upper Lytchett. Of the last-named it may be
said that the artist has been singularly successful
in the immense vigour he has put into the sky—
one of those by no means uncommon well-lit but
heavy autumn skies which are familiar to all who
know the district well. A “moving” sky, under
which the landscape—a wide stretch of heather,
gorse, and marshland, with the silvery streak of
Wareham Channel in the far distance—appears
almost sullen, though by no means gloomy.
It was whilst this picture was in the making that
I had an opportunity of visiting Mr. Whitehead
at one of the various “ encampments ” he makes
during the summer months, I found him and
Mrs. Whitehead high up on a bleak stretch of
moorland overlooking the distant Purbeck Hills,
Corfe Castle, the upper reaches of Poole Harbour,
and the lower part of the exquisite Wareham
Channel, with its water which glistened like a
polished mirror in sunlight, and appears grey at
eventide and dawn, and indigo as a Scottish loch
when it is under a lowering Wessex sky.
There in a gravel pit was pitched the tent in
near proximity to the small movable studio and
the caravan. And on the moorland above and
around Mr. Whitehead had been for many days at
work in sunshine and rain.
It is in this way the artist gets all his pictures.
Though possessed of a studio in town he very
seldom uses it for painting.
“ Most of my pictures,” said Mr. Whitehead, as
we stood upon the heath watching huge masses of
heavy cloud drift across the Purbeck Hills from
seaward, i.e. S.-W., “ are not only commenced in
the open air but practically finished there. I have
always thought that for a landscape painter to
content himself with making rough notes and
painting his pictures indoors was quite the wrong
system upon which to work. A caravan and tent,
such as I have used for the last ten years, and
have travelled in with my wife hundreds of miles
in different parts of Dorset, is the best possible home
for the serious worker. Practically one lives in the
open air, and, therefore, sees all the atmospheric
changes. To-day, for example, when it has neither
been fine nor wet, the changes I have seen have
been simply marvellous in their number and
variety. In fact all through Wessex, if one lives
out of doors as we do for five or six months in the
“ CODLINGSTONE HEATH
BY F. WHITEHEAD
a number of pictures, all of Wessex scenery, amongst
the more important of which we may mention The
Old Mill at Corfe Mullen and Meadows near Wim-
borne ; A Frosty Morning in the Frome Valley, near
Wool, a soft, impressionistic study of flooded
meadows, the prevailing tones of which are yellows
and yellow-reds; a picture of Gorse in Bloom, with
a strong sky; a Wessex homestead near East Stoke,
in the Frome Valley; and a Vitiv of Pu?-beck Hills
from Upper Lytchett. Of the last-named it may be
said that the artist has been singularly successful
in the immense vigour he has put into the sky—
one of those by no means uncommon well-lit but
heavy autumn skies which are familiar to all who
know the district well. A “moving” sky, under
which the landscape—a wide stretch of heather,
gorse, and marshland, with the silvery streak of
Wareham Channel in the far distance—appears
almost sullen, though by no means gloomy.
It was whilst this picture was in the making that
I had an opportunity of visiting Mr. Whitehead
at one of the various “ encampments ” he makes
during the summer months, I found him and
Mrs. Whitehead high up on a bleak stretch of
moorland overlooking the distant Purbeck Hills,
Corfe Castle, the upper reaches of Poole Harbour,
and the lower part of the exquisite Wareham
Channel, with its water which glistened like a
polished mirror in sunlight, and appears grey at
eventide and dawn, and indigo as a Scottish loch
when it is under a lowering Wessex sky.
There in a gravel pit was pitched the tent in
near proximity to the small movable studio and
the caravan. And on the moorland above and
around Mr. Whitehead had been for many days at
work in sunshine and rain.
It is in this way the artist gets all his pictures.
Though possessed of a studio in town he very
seldom uses it for painting.
“ Most of my pictures,” said Mr. Whitehead, as
we stood upon the heath watching huge masses of
heavy cloud drift across the Purbeck Hills from
seaward, i.e. S.-W., “ are not only commenced in
the open air but practically finished there. I have
always thought that for a landscape painter to
content himself with making rough notes and
painting his pictures indoors was quite the wrong
system upon which to work. A caravan and tent,
such as I have used for the last ten years, and
have travelled in with my wife hundreds of miles
in different parts of Dorset, is the best possible home
for the serious worker. Practically one lives in the
open air, and, therefore, sees all the atmospheric
changes. To-day, for example, when it has neither
been fine nor wet, the changes I have seen have
been simply marvellous in their number and
variety. In fact all through Wessex, if one lives
out of doors as we do for five or six months in the
“ CODLINGSTONE HEATH
BY F. WHITEHEAD