1940
watercolor
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
The Southdown, Underhill Road: Porching Farm from Fulking is a 1940 watercolor by Charles Knight, a British Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows a quiet countryside scene. Rolling hills stretch into the distance, with a few small houses tucked near the bottom. The colors are soft—mostly pale yellows, grays, and earthy browns—like a misty day. A lone figure walks along a path near the water’s edge, adding a tiny sense of scale. The artist used loose, sketchy brushstrokes to suggest light and shadow, making the landscape feel simple yet alive. The faded paper and watercolor technique give it an old, gentle look. Next, check out the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more works like this.
This watercolour by Charles Knight is part of the Recording Britain project, a wartime initiative that employed artists to document the British landscape and its changing character during the early 1940s. Created in 1940 under the Ministry of Labour and National Service, the scheme was funded by the Pilgrim Trust and aimed to capture scenes of national identity, including rural buildings and landscapes. Knight’s work depicts a specific location in Sussex, reflecting the project’s focus on preserving a visual record of places perceived as vulnerable to wartime disruption or modernization. The…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Charles Knight was a British landscape painter and stained-glass artist, best remembered for his watercolour paintings of the landscapes of Sussex.
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