Hanson Toot, View in Dovedale

John Linnell, 1815, reworked, 1846, 1854, and 1870

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Artist: John Linnell (British, 1792–1882)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 24 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches (62.2 x 90.2 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Linnell once wrote that he “lived to paint poetical landscapes,” such as this view of Hanson Toot, a mountain in Derbyshire. The laborers who worked the land were as important to his paintings as the land itself. After moving from London to rural Surrey later in life, he began to depict the tenant farmers on his own property, using the land for agriculture while drawing artistic inspiration from it. Linnell returned to this canvas throughout his career, retouching it every time it changed hands, and made his final alterations at the age of seventy-eight. Taking pride in his productivity, he recorded the dates of his revisions on the bottom right of the picture.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.