Cauliflower is known as broccoli in Cornwall. The Revd. Canon Arthur Townshend Boscawen (1862-1939), rector of Ludgvan from 1893 to 1939, (a keen horticulturist who was instrumental in founding the Cornish anemone industry) helped local commercial broccoli production by introducing seed from Bavaria, which improved the local varieties. William Banks Fortescue worked in the Newlyn tradition of narrative painting and particularly concentrated on subjects such as this. Fortescue was living in St Ives when this work was painted and travelled around to his subjects on horseback with his easel and paints on his back.
We see an older man and a young boy both stooping as they work along a line of pegged string, the man creating a furrow with a wide hoe while the boy places the broccoli plants. In the early 20th century, there were nearly 60 market gardeners and farmers in Ludgvan parish, which would have been small, family-run concerns. We can’t say in which parish this scene was painted but it is likely nearby.
- Artist
- William Banks Fortescue
- Materials
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 91.5 x 71.5cm
- Collection
- Land & Sea