1943
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Askham Village, Westmorland is a 1943 watercolor by Frances Macdonald, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This watercolor shows a quiet village with stone houses huddled on a hill. A narrow road winds through the scene, splitting the green fields. Leafless trees stand tall against a stormy sky, their branches bare. The buildings look old, with dark roofs and small windows, some half-hidden behind grassy slopes. The artist used soft, muted colors—mostly grays, greens, and browns—to keep the mood calm but a little moody. The brushstrokes are loose, almost sketchy, giving it a quick, lived-in feel. Look up Victoria and Albert Museum to see more works like this.
Frances Macdonald’s watercolour *Askham Village, Westmorland* (1943) depicts a grouping of cottages beside an open green in the Lake District village of Askham. Produced as part of the Recording Britain scheme, it was commissioned by the Committee for the Employment of Artists in Wartime to document places of national significance during the Second World War. The work reflects the broader effort led by Sir Kenneth Clark to preserve a visual record of Britain’s changing rural and urban landscapes amid wartime pressures and postwar transformations.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Frances Macdonald MacNair (24 August 1873 – 12 December 1921) was a Scottish artist whose design work was a prominent feature of the Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) during the 1890s.
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