Evening on the Kennet

Evening on the Kennet has all the influences and suggestions that originate with the Barbizon school and the later influences of the realist painter Jules Bastien-Lepage. However, rather than being a subject painted on the edges of the forest of Fountainbleu, this is a charming local Berkshire scene along the river Kennet. Adrian Stokes depicts a peaceful atmospheric river landscape with a worker returning with a boat full of vegetation, against either a sunrise or sunset framed by a towering backdrop of trees and reeds. The painting itself is defined by cool tones which help provide depth, such as blues, purples, greens and greys. It also features markedly brighter colours, particularly oranges and pinks, which illuminate the scene and give the scene an air of anticipation; either to the upcoming busy day ahead for the worker and their boat, or to the draw of night and the end of the working day. Either way, Stokes beautifully depicts a calm, rural scene of solitude for the worker, who gazes at their reflection on the Kennet River.

Adrian Stokes studied art in Liverpool before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1871. In 1876 he went to France where he started painting ‘en plein air’ under the influence of the Impressionists. In 1884 Stokes married the Austrian artist, Marianne Preidlsberger. In 1885 and 1886 the couple travelled to Denmark to spend the summer working with the art colony at Skagen and became close friends with the Anchers. They established themselves in Cornwall until 1898 when they moved to London and travelled widely painting in France, Spain, Austria, and Italy and exhibiting steadily their works.