Pea Pickers at Ripper's Cross 1951 oil on canvas 14 x 18in (35.3 x 45.5cm). Imperial War Museum
In 1950 Evelyn's husband, Roger Folley, who since World War 2 had been working for Oxford University Agricultural Research Department, took up a new and more rewarding post at Wye College, in east Kent. Wye College was the centre of the agricultural economics campus of Imperial College, London. While the move meant new professional horizons for Roger, for Evelyn it meant abandoning the many colleagues and friends she had at Oxford, chiefly centred on the Ruskin School of Art, where she had been teaching.
Leaving Oxford was a difficult time for Evelyn, a wrench and a painful separation, aggravated by the house she and Roger rented, The Elms, being as isolated as anywhere can be in rural Kent. At first solitary and unemployed, she found it to some extent in the Christian Science Reading Room in nearby Ashford. The Ashford Christian Scientists appear to have been an integrated and energetic group, mainly of women of much the same age as Evelyn, who was 44 in December 1950.
Apart from formal lectures and seminars, Roger Folley's Wye College work included visiting local farms, establishing a rapport with them, arranging and overseeing student placements and generally working in tandem with these farms to maximise efficiency and productivity. One such farm was Ripper's Cross, close to the village of Hothfield, west of Ashford, where the farm manager was called Allender. In due course the two couples, Folley and Allender, met: Evelyn and Marcella Allender took to each other at once, both quickly forming part of a circle of close friends.
With Pea Pickers at Ripper's Cross it seems that Evelyn has reverted to her wartime Women's Land Army images, but resemblance is superficial and if the Imperial War Museum accepted the gift (from a Mr David Bunker, a frequent visitor to the Allenders) in 1992 of Pea Pickers at Ripper's Cross it was not because of any community with its existing group of Dunbars. In fact it has no connection with her wartime painting; Evelyn's employment by the War Artists' Advisory Committee ceased in 1945, six years previously.
It's a spontaneous work, as cheerful and glad-hearted as ever, as though Evelyn had driven the few miles from The Elms to Hothfield to call on Marcella Allender, with whom she had gone for a walk down the Bethersden road. Was she struck by the unexpected flecks and flashes of colour of a gang of pea-pickers, themselves like a sudden patch of wild flowers?
No time, then, to do more than briefly record the overall scene in her sketchbook, or possibly on the back of a bill or an envelope: the geometry of the fields, the stately procession of cumulus humilis clouds, some midfield oaks, outliers of the remnants of the ancient Wealden forest stretching to the western horizon; no time to do more than hint at the bulbous shapes in the foreground so that we can't be certain what they represent, other than reminding us that nature's gifts rarely come in forms that are pinched or skeletal. By contrast the human figures, which I imagine Evelyn putting in on her return from Hothfield, are carefully drawn, their postures and attitudes convincingly recorded as they bend among the notoriously straggly and tangled pea-vines to snap off the pods and put them into sacks.
Did Evelyn consider this painting finished? Her general principle was not to sign anything unless it was finished. There's no signature here. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Pea Pickers at Ripper's Cross says enough to us about the Weald, about harmonies of green, about the closeness of mankind to the soil, about the eternal year-round organic whole. And maybe about peace after conflict, which is perhaps why the Imperial War Museum accepted it.
* * *
Thanks to Mr Colin, one time resident of Ripper's Cross Farm, for his contribution.
Text ©Christopher Campbell-Howes 2024. All rights reserved.
by Christopher Campbell-Howes
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I live on rippers cross farm my Grandfather came here to work in 1925 and I like to think he and my Grandma and father and aunt could indeed be amongst those pea pickers
ReplyDelete. I cant recognised exactly the field tho
Thank you, this is very interesting! I wonder if you can identify your family members among the pea pickers? (Although I understand that organised groups of farm workers were commonly recruited, often from the East End of London, for seasonal work of this type. Hop-picking was another.)
DeleteIt's a long time since I was in the area, but I image Evelyn Dunbar took the view from the Bethersden road, looking towards the south-west. She painted it over 70 years ago, so the detail of the landscape may have changed.
I wonder if you have any information about the Allender family?
Thank you for getting touch. Comments like yours are so valuable!
Best wishes,
Christopher
iv always wondered which field she painted i dont recognise any trees etc but it has changed a lot and im guessing some artistic licence .
ReplyDeleteMr Allender was the farm manager and id known him since i was born he had no children or sibligs as i know of
he helped me a lot to take an intrest in farming and taught me a lot. he retired in 1111870 and i started work on another local farm father said i didnt want to work on the same farm as him and grandad .
Mrs Allender was a lovely old lady always very well dressed and looked like hinge and bracket the actors . a chap name of David Bunker used to visit them i dont know if he was related tho My dad would have known but id never thought to ask him at the time . it was Via David Bunker that the war museum have the painting . i would love to see the painting . iv done a few versions in acrylic but im no artist
regards colin
Hi Colin: thank you once again! You've supplied me with information that I didn't know and which allows me correct certain errors in this post. I'm very grateful!
ReplyDeleteEvelyn Dunbar's husband Roger Folley, a lecturer in agricultural economics, especially fruit growing, started work at Wye College late in 1950, when they moved into The Elms, at Hinxhill. Part of Roger Folley's work consisted of going round local farms. This work took him to Ripper's Cross, where he met Mr Allender and in due course his wife Marcella.
Evelyn was the more socially outgoing of the two, and took to Marcella at once, and the two became firm friends. She was, as you suggest, lively, attractive and extrovert, and this is how I remember her when we crossed paths occasionally at The Elms when I was about 14. If I remember rightly, she modelled for Evelyn in the 'Omega' panel she painted for Bletchley Park Training College in 1957, which you can find elsewhere in this blog.
I never met David Bunker, a very keen club cricketer, who played for Headcorn. I don't think he knew 'Pea Pickers' was not a war painting.
You've shed such a bright light on all this. Many, many thanks!
Best wishes,
Christopher
PS 'Pea Pickers at Ripper's Cross' is indeed at the Imperial War Museum, but not usually on display. I'm sure you could ask to see it; they're usually very helpful.