Open full image Pin

Aldington Church

Aubrey W. Waterfield

1940

watercolor

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Early Modern

Dominant colour

Aldington Church is a 1940 watercolor by Aubrey W. Waterfield, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: Aubrey W. Waterfield
When & what style?: 1940
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

About this work

This sketch shows a quiet village scene with a tall church tower in the center. A red wagon sits on a dirt road, parked near a thatched-roof cottage. Trees with green leaves frame the church, and the sky is light and soft. The colors are muted, with earthy browns and greens dominating. The paper looks worn, like it’s been handled a lot. The artist used quick, loose brushstrokes—some areas are barely there, while others, like the wagon, are more detailed. Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum to see more works like this.

The story of this work

Overview

A watercolour by Aubrey W. Waterfield from 1940 depicts the Church of St. Martin in Aldington. The work is part of the "Recording Britain" collection, a wartime initiative supported by the Pilgrim Trust and directed by Sir Kenneth Clark to document the British landscape and cultural sites. The scheme commissioned artists to record scenes threatened by war damage, urban expansion, and changing rural life. Waterfield’s painting contributes to this effort by capturing a specific English village church during the early 1940s.

Read the full account in the museum source.

About the artist

Artist

Aubrey W. Waterfield

Watercolor artist Aubrey W. Waterfield captured quiet English scenes in the 1930s–40s, trading grand vistas for close studies of village life. His brush lingered on timber beams and mossy stone, as in the chalk-white…

See the richer artist page