Artwork
Painting
Painting is a paint painting by Unknown. It dates from 1938 and is held in the collection of the Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading. Harold Yates’s 1938 oil depicts Duckett’s Barn, a farm building situated on the University Farm at Shinfield Green near Reading, Berkshire.
About this work
The story behind this painting is interesting - it was hung in a manor house until the National Institute of Research in Dairying closed in 1985.
This painting shows a barn, Duckett's Barn, in a rural setting. It was painted at University Farm in Shinfield Green. The story behind this painting is interesting - it was hung in a manor house until the National Institute of Research in Dairying closed in 1985.
The donor, Marguerite Fazey, chose to keep it when the institute closed. This painting is now part of the collection at the museum: Museum of Ethnography.
Overview
Harold Yates’s 1938 oil depicts Duckett’s Barn, a farm building situated on the University Farm at Shinfield Green near Reading, Berkshire. The composition presents the barn within a tranquil countryside, emphasizing the modest architecture against a gentle landscape. The work measures a modest size and reflects the artist’s interest in rural subjects during the interwar period.
Subject & Meaning
The painting focuses on Duckett’s Barn, an agricultural structure that served the surrounding dairy research facilities. By portraying the barn in isolation, Yates highlights the everyday built environment of British farming, inviting viewers to consider the relationship between utilitarian architecture and the natural setting that sustains it.
Technique & Style
Yates employs a restrained palette of earth tones, using soft brushwork to render the weathered timber and surrounding fields. The handling of light suggests an early morning or late afternoon, with subtle shadows that give the scene depth without dramatic contrast, characteristic of regional landscape painting of the 1930s.
History & Provenance
Originally displayed in the manor house of the National Institute of Research in Dairying (NIRD), the canvas remained there until the institute’s closure in 1985. Marguerite Fazey, a long‑term employee of NIRD, was permitted to select an item to retain; she chose this painting and kept it in her home loft, where it stayed until its acquisition by the Museum of Ethnography.
Context
Created during a period when agricultural research was expanding in England, the work reflects the institutional connection between scientific study and the surrounding farm landscape. Duckett’s Barn, as part of the University Farm, was integral to dairy experiments, and the painting serves as a visual record of that environment before the later redevelopment of the site.
Artist & collection
Museum
Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading
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