Lane with Cattle after John Crome, Antique Etching by Chattock, circa 1875

A shaded country lane runs between tall trees, with sunlight breaking across the road. A small herd of cattle ambles toward the viewer, one cow stopping to graze at the verge, a rider on a pale horse just behind them and a little dog trotting alongside. At left, beside a high brick wall and a wooden paling, two figures sit talking under the trees, and farther down the lane two more walk away into the distance. A rough wooden fence closes the right side. The scene is ordinary English country life, observed without sentiment: the animals, the passersby and the old wall under the trees are given the same quiet attention, and the eye is led steadily down the lane into the distance.

The plate is lettered "Crome pinxit", after John Crome (1768 to 1821), founder of the Norwich School and one of the great English painters of everyday landscape, much admired for his trees. The etching is signed in the plate by R.S. Chattock, the English etcher Richard Samuel Chattock, who etched after English landscape painters in the 1870s.

This is an original etching: the foliage is built from vigorous, free lines, the shadows from dense crosshatching, and the lane and sky are left light, so the whole sheet has the sparkle of sun through leaves.

A classic English landscape for a study or a country kitchen, framed in oak or black with a narrow mat, where the deep blacks of the etched foliage will hold their own.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.