LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS
by: John Ritchie
Location: Lobby
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Country: United Kingdom
Life in the Backwoods is an original painting by John Ritchie from 1861.
In this painting, Ritchie shows a rustic family in their improvised woodland encampment. Seated at the centre of the group is a man who drinks from a cup and has spread before him a simple meal. Behind is a woman with a child in her arms whom she feeds from a bowl held by an older child. On each side of these figures stand a young man and a young woman, each wearing working clothes. A loaded hand-cart is seen in the background on the right. In the foreground is a basket and impedimenta, and on the right an iron pot heating on a campfire.
No indication is given of how the family might be supported, nor whether they are indigent or living permanently in the forest. During the 1850s and ‘60s many people were forced off the land because of falling grain prices and consequent agricultural depression. Ritchie seems to be here documenting the privations suffered.
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