The Pennine Painter
@PennineThe
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Fan account of the Yorkshire artist #PeterBrook (1927-2009), well known for his Pennine pictures and his trademark man and dog motif.
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‘Hannah Hauxwell - Waving Goodbye’ is perhaps Peter Brook’s best known painting and Hannah, living alone on her isolated Baldersdale farm, was one his favourite subjects. If it is now to be goodbye from Twitter I will post Peter’s work on my new pennine_painter Instagram account.
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‘Hannah Hauxwell Last Winter’, one of a series of 50+ Peter Brook paintings, portrays the legendary farmer from remote Baldersdale as a tiny figure almost overwhelmed by the bitter weather at Low Birk Hatt, where she lived and worked alone with just her dog and cow for company.
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‘Hannah Hauxwell Waving Goodbye’ is one of Peter Brook’s best known paintings. After the death of her uncle in 1961 Hannah virtually self isolated at Low Birk Hatt farm, 1,000ft up in Baldersdale. Once a month she collected a parcel of food from the nearest road, 1.5 miles away.
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Today marks the anniversary of the death in 2018 of Hannah Hauxwell at the age of 91, her life and work on her isolated Low Birk Hatt Farm in Baldersdale having been the subject of 50+ Peter Brook paintings including ‘Hannah Hauxwell Waving Goodbye’ which always hung in his home.
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‘One Down, 2 Up - With a Sheep Sheltering and a Man Thinking’ could only be a Peter Brook title, purposely mis-quoting a common expression, making reference to a lone ewe, which so often finds its way into his paintings, and ascribing a role to an otherwise superfluous bystander.
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The ever changing Pennine light, depending upon the season of the year and time of day, was a favourite subject of Peter Brook. In ‘Monday - Swaledale Sunset’ the low evening light renders the drystone walls black, creating a striking contrast with the white snow-covered fields.
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Couldn’t let today pass without posting Peter Brook’s ‘Bitter Cold - Chapel Street’ with its washing blowing in what must have been an icy wind. A view of Sowerby Bridge from 1959, it is as bone chilling as any of his later Pennine snow scenes. (Kirklees Museums and Galleries)
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With even more weather warnings for the northern Pennines ‘Hannah Hauxwell Last Winter’ comes to mind, the lone farmer from Baldersdale, the subject of some 50+ Peter Brook paintings, struggling every year to survive in the face of extreme conditions on her farm at Low Birk Hatt.
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Peter Brook’s work is synonymous with snow scenes, whether they be of bleak Pennine moors or his local Bradley Wood, gentler, almost magical paintings like ‘4PM - The Wood Filling up with Snow’ as Peter and Shep disappear into the distance at the end of their late afternoon walk.
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With the weather turning colder and snow last night in the south of England here’s Peter Brook’s ‘Self Portrait - Freezing’, a view of Holmfirth, which he knew well having been born and brought up in the small Pennine village of Scholes above the town. (Sold by Bonhams in 2016)
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Peter Brook’s ‘Winter’ is one of his early minimalist works, the washing line the only hint of colour and emphasising the muted tones of the farmhouse, while the majority of the painting is given over to snow and mist, through which the outline of Cheese Gate Nab is just visible.
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With temperatures returning to below zero this week here’s Peter Brook’s ‘Self Portrait - Freezing’, an enigmatic view of Holmfirth with the easy to miss isolated figure standing on the pavement the only sign of life on what was clearly a very cold day. (Sold by Bonhams in 2016)
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‘Lighting Up Time’ is a typical Peter Brook title, drawing our attention to the solitary lamp post, the orange glow suggesting it has only recently been turned on and adding a welcome feeling of warmth to a painting of an otherwise dark and cold winter afternoon in Bradley Wood.
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Monday washing appears in all weathers in Peter Brook’s paintings, with ‘Bitter Cold - Chapel Street’, a large wintry portrayal of Sowerby Bridge, perhaps the most striking, the traditional lines of laundry blowing in what must have been a bone-chilling wind. (
@HuddsArtGallery
)
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‘Bitter Cold - Chapel Street’, a bone-chilling view of Sowerby Bridge from 1959, must be the best known of Peter Brook’s early social realist paintings and a timely reminder that on a Monday the weekly washing went out whatever the weather. (In the collection of
@HuddsArtGallery
)
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Today’s tumbling temperatures are perhaps a sign that Peter Brook’s ‘Long Pennine Winter’ is already underway. A thought-provoking painting, the seemingly endless road references the length of the most challenging season of the year for those who live and work on high ground.
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‘Staithes’, a view of the North Yorkshire seaside village near to Scarborough, is far from a typical Peter Brook, the rich reds of the roof tiles and chimney stacks together with the blue of sea and sky, suggesting a warm and sunny day. (Bradford Museums and Galleries)
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Judging by this morning’s temperatures it seems the ‘Long Pennine Winter’ has already begun. Peter Brook’s minimalist painting of Flight Hill Farm, seen from the rear against the backdrop of a cold cheerless sky, illustrates just how bleak it can be. (Sold at Christie’s in 2008)
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‘One Down, 2Up - With a Sheep Sheltering and a Man Thinking’ could only be a Peter Brook title, playing with words in describing the cottage, making sure we don’t miss the curious ewe and leaving us wondering about the role of the bystander. (Sold by Hartleys Auctioneers in 2017)
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Peter Brook’s late afternoon dog walks provided the subject for what was to become almost a sub-set of his work, with paintings like ‘4PM - The Wood Filling Up With Snow’ portraying Peter and Shep out in their local Bradley Wood, catching the last light of a typical winter’s day.
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Happy New Year everyone and many thanks for all the interest in Peter Brook’s work over the last twelve months. ‘January - Pennine Valley’, a classic winter landscape, gets us underway again. (From the ‘Twelve Months of the Year’ series of lithographs published by Agnews in 1978)
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‘Slight Mist - At 1,000 Feet’, reminiscent of recent weather, demonstrates Peter Brook’s ability to portray decreased visibility in winter conditions, the buildings and trees on the horizon lacking definition as they merge into a featureless grey sky. (Sold at Christie’s in 2017)
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The use of colour in Peter Brook’s landscapes often belies the severity of the Pennine winter. In ‘Going Up as the Sun Goes Down’ the evening light is the subject of the painting, rendering the sky orange and purple while the snow-covered ground below becomes tinged with blue.
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Still snowing across North Yorkshire today with reports from many parts looking a lot like Peter Brook’s ‘On the Way from Reeth to Tan Hill and Stopped’. Hope the pub is still open when he gets there!
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Today marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Hannah Hauxwell, the Baldersdale farmer who into her sixties lived and worked alone at Low Birk Hatt in the High Pennines, providing Peter Brook with his subject for over 50 paintings like ‘Trying to Get her Cow into the Mistal’.
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This very large, early Peter Brook, titled simply ‘Winter’, portrays the reality of weather conditions all too familiar for those who farm in upland areas at this time of year with the mist down and little sign of life save for the line of washing, optimistically hung out to dry.
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‘Working Outside in Winter’, a favourite Peter Brook theme, reflects the importance he attached to experiencing his subjects first hand, taking literally hundreds of photographs in a day, prior to producing the finished paintings under artificial light at home in his studio.
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Peter Brook was more than a painter of snow scenes, his technical ability as a landscape artist apparent in work like ‘Wood on a Hill’, a Cumbrian scene, the fine detail of the buildings in the foreground contrasting with the stand of trees still shrouded by early morning mist.
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Peter Brook often included road signs in his paintings, particularly the distinctive red ‘Road Blocked 1 Miles Ahead’ notice with its grammatical anomaly, which he always found amusing.
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‘Christmas - Waiting for Someone to Come to the Door’, a typically quirky portrayal of one of Peter Brook’s favourite locations, Clayton Square in Brighouse, includes his usual man-and-dog and washing line motifs, while the tree in the window provides a nod to the festive season.
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It’s going dark already this afternoon with the clocks having gone back overnight and it feels a bit like ‘Walking the Dog - 4PM’ with Peter Brook and Shep out for their last walk of a winter’s day in their local Bradley Wood. (Sold by Bonhams in 2020)
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With the light fading an hour earlier this afternoon following the changing of the clocks it’s already feeling a bit like Peter Brook’s ‘Walking the Dog - 4PM’, one of the well-known series of paintings of his local Bradley Wood in winter. (Sold by Bonhams in 2020)
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On the darkest day of the year here’s Peter Brook’s ‘Bleak Mid-Winter, Pennine Landscape’ with its walls and tree outlined in black by the low seasonal light, in contrast to the perfect pink sky and colourful tufts of grass still visible through the snow, which lift the painting.
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In ‘4PM - The Wood Filling up with Snow’, one of many portrayals of a favourite Peter Brook subject, his late afternoon winter time walks with Shep, Peter’s blue coat and distinctive dog lead are just visible in the fading light as they disappear into the distance together.
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Wintry conditions across the Pennines today and a lot like Peter Brook’s ‘At First Rain - Then Snow - And Now Sleet’, the sort of wild weather which he often captured in his paintings, simultaneously adding that glimmer of light or slither of pink to an otherwise ominous sky.
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Four Peter Brook paintings which have the feel of old black and white photographs: clockwise from top left are Frosty, Boxing Day, Walking the Dog and Evening in the West Riding.
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Happy New Year and many thanks for all the interest in Peter Brook’s work throughout 2022. It’s time again for ‘January - Pennine Valley’, an archetypal winter landscape, bleak but beautiful, from the ‘Twelve Months of the Year’ series of lithographs published by Agnew’s in 1978.
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Today is the third anniversary of the death of the legendary Hannah Hauxwell, who lived and worked alone on her remote Baldersdale farm for nearly 30 years. One of Peter Brook’s favourite subjects, ‘Hannah Hauxwell Last Winter’ captures perfectly the conditions she had to endure.
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‘Hello! The Dog Recognised You Before I did!’ Many thanks for the tremendous response to yesterday’s post. For clarification, Peter Brook and Shep will be staying on Twitter for as long as possible, in addition to Instagram, where they have just made their first appearance.
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‘Pennine Valley’ is a sensitively observed Peter Brook winter landscape, the limited colour palette emphasising the low afternoon light, just catching the front of the house, while the subdued yellow sky adds to the feeling that the day is almost over. (Sold by Bonhams in 2016)
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What could be better than a Peter Brook for
@GrimArtGroup
’s
#WordArtWeekend
? In ‘Notice - One Miles Ahead’ the warning on the red road works sign, with its obvious grammatical error, underlines the subject of the painting as well as reflecting Peter’s singular sense of humour.
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Peter Brook always found signs interesting and often included them in his paintings to add colour and to create a narrative, the red ROAD BLOCKED warning being a particular favourite and forming a striking contrast to an otherwise bleak winter scene in ‘Notice - One Miles Ahead’.
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‘Farm in the Snow’ is in many ways a classic Pennine snow scene with its drystone walls, remote farmhouse and subtle winter sky, but it is typical of Peter Brook that he focuses on the makeshift gate and its leaning posts. (From the James Mason Collection sold by Bonhams in 2010)
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‘Calling for a Brew - (With More Snow Coming)’, portraying one of Peter Brook’s favourite locations above Crimsworth Dean near Hebden Bridge, has all the hallmarks of his paintings of the Pennine winter, including a trademark tongue-in-cheek title. (Sold at Christie’s in 2013)
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In ‘Drawing a Good View in the Dales’ Peter Brook captures the scale of the Pennine landscape in winter, the vast expanse of snow covered fells emphasised in contrast to the isolated huddle of buildings and the minute man and dog motif. (Photo credit: The Harrison Lord Gallery)
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‘Monday - Swaledale Sunset’ is in many ways a typical Peter Brook portrayal of the end of a Pennine winter’s day, the eye searching instinctively for the usual weekly line of washing, often difficult to spot alongside a distant farmhouse, but on this occasion nowhere to be seen.
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There seems to have been a fair amount of snow in Wensleydale and Swaledale today with scenes reminiscent of Peter Brook’s ‘Drawing a Good View in the Dales’.
@OSM_Photography
@yorkshire_dales
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Throughout his career Peter Brook painted his favourite locations many times, detailing the conditions prevailing at the time. ‘After a Long Grey Day in the Valley the Sun Comes Out’, a view of Cheese Gate Nab near Holmfirth, captures the evening light over the local landmark.
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Road signs appear in many of Peter Brook’s later paintings, adding a narrative and a touch of colour and humour, particularly apparent in ‘Notice - One Miles Ahead’, the red warning with its grammatical inaccuracy providing a contrast to an otherwise cold and bleak wintry scene.
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In his paintings of Bradley Wood Peter Brook often portrayed himself and Shep disappearing into the distance on their late afternoon walk. In ‘Training the Dog - About 1/4 to 4’ we see only Shep as he sits at the side of the track, with Peter presumably nearby out of the picture.
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Trees in winter were one of Peter Brook’s favourite subjects, in ‘Edge of the Wood’ from 1979 those in the foreground portrayed as stark and skeletal while in the distance they merge seamlessly into the haze of one of his perfect pink skies. (Sold by Hartleys Auctioneers in 2015)
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In the mid 1980’s Peter Brook ventured over the border into Lancashire, producing over 40 paintings in the Trough of Bowland, including ‘Proctor’s Farm - Walls and Trees in Snow’, culminating in an exhibition at The Inn at Whitewell in 1988.(Sold at Hartleys Auctioneers in 2010)
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Lots of dramatic images of flooding in the Yorkshire Dales posted yesterday. Before long equally spectacular views of the area blanketed in snow and resembling Peter Brook’s ‘Drawing a Good View in the Dales’ will no doubt be circulating. (Photo credit: The Harrison Lord Gallery)
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With Storm Gerrit reeking havoc across the UK here’s Peter Brook’s ‘Getting Through - With the Hay’, a portrayal of a precarious-looking, heavily loaded lorry as it approaches a steep descent in extreme winter conditions. (From the James Mason collection, sold by Bonhams in 2010)
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‘Boxing Day’, first exhibited at Agnew’s, probably circa 1970, is one of a series of similar paintings from that time in which Peter Brook employs almost featureless contrasting planes of black and white to represent the austerity of the Pennine winter. (Sold by Bonhams in 2011)
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When Peter Brook painted ‘Washing on a Terraced Street, Sowerby Bridge’ in the late 1950’s similar scenes were a common sight on a Monday, the lines of coloured laundry creating a striking contrast with the soot-blackened houses of the West Riding town. (Sold by Bonhams in 2009)
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Peter Brook’s paintings often included washing on a line, whatever the time of year. In ‘The Pennine Winter’, with snow falling and a sheep sheltering from the weather, a line of multicoloured laundry still hangs optimistically out to dry. (From
@clarkart
’s 2013 Exhibition)
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With daylight now disappearing ever earlier Peter Brook’s ‘Lighting Up Time’ comes to mind as he takes Shep for his late afternoon walk in the darkness of Bradley Wood, but given a warm, welcoming feel by the orange glow from the lamppost shining on the snow-covered ground below.
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Visibility was often the subject of Peter Brook’s winter work, in ‘Slight Mist - At 1,000 Feet’ the tree and pair of gateposts in the foreground represented by strikingly strong forms in contrast to the distant buildings almost disappearing from view. (Sold by Christie’s in 2017)
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‘Hannah Hauxwell - Putting a Cow in the Mistal - Christmas 1979’, one of 50+ Peter Brook paintings of Hannah on her farm at Low Birk Hatt in Baldersdale, portrays her working alone in challenging winter weather as she follows her daily routine, with no sign of seasonal festivity.
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‘One down, 2up - With a Sheep Sheltering and a Man Thinking’ illustrates Peter Brook’s philosophy of making the ordinary interesting, taking as his subject a run of the mill terraced cottage, a lone ewe and a bystander to produce an enigmatic painting. (Sold at Hartleys in 2017)
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To Peter Brook ‘Working Outside in Winter’ was an integral part of his art involving, in his own words, ‘the experience of being there, seeing and feeling what it was like, enjoying it, that is when you are doing all the work for the picture’. (From ‘Peter Brook in the Pennines’)
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‘Christmas Eve in Slaithwaite - With a Distracted Dog and a Baffled Sheep’ could only be a Peter Brook, the confused animals surprised by Santa’s arrival, heading for the door in preference to the more traditional means of entry and seemingly unaware of the freshly swept chimney.
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‘Bitter Cold - Chapel Street’, a Peter Brook Sowerby Bridge painting from 1959, is perhaps his best known urban snow scene with the washing strung across the road, in what was to become a trademark motif, blowing in the breeze. (Kirklees Museums & Galleries)
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From c1970 for the next 40 years or so the majority of Peter Brook’s paintings featured his well-known Pennine snow scenes, something for which he made no apologies and readily recognised in the typically whimsical title of ‘With Shep in Summer-Wine Country in Winter of Course!’
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Peter Brook always had a keen eye for detail. In ‘On the Road - Drawing’ it is not Peter and Shep who catch the eye, but the bright red GIVE WAY sign leaning into the picture, while not one of the telegraph poles flanking the road as it disappears into the distance is straight.
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Happy Christmas everyone! ‘An Old-Fashioned Christmas Morning - Passing an Abandoned Pennine Farmhouse with a Tree and an Abandoned Nest’ is just typical of a Peter Brook title, drawing our attention to the most mundane of incidental details in case we should fail to spot them.
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In ‘Drawing a Good View in the Dales’ the vastness of the almost wilderness-like, snow-covered fells is emphasised by the inclusion of Peter Brook’s minute ‘man and dog’ motif, a regular addition to much of his later work. (Photo credit: The Harrison Lord Gallery)
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‘Drawing Outside - And then Suddenly the Sun Came Out’, from 2003, illustrates one of Peter Brook’s most enduring themes, the unexpected changes in the weather which he often experienced when walking in the Pennines, particularly in winter. (Sold by Hartleys Auctioneers in 2015)
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The sky is often the main point of interest in Peter Brook’s paintings, in ‘Waiting for a Break’ the swirling snow flurries forcing Peter and Shep to seek shelter in the lee of the building in the hope that better weather will soon be on its way. (Sold
@Wilson55Auction
in 2020)
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It was paintings like ‘Back of a Pennine Farm with a Sinking Roof’, exhibited by the London dealer Agnew’s in the 1970’s, which earned Peter Brook national recognition and a rapidly increasing collector base, attracted by his bleak winter snow scenes. (Sold at Christie’s in 2009)
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Some ten years or so before his name became synonymous with cold Pennine landscapes Peter Brook was painting the mills of the West Riding town of Brighouse in winter weather, as in ‘Birds Royd - Snow’ from 1960, and with a noticeably bolder use of colour. (The Hepworth Wakefield)
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‘Calling for a Brew (With More Snow Coming)’, a view over Crimsworth Dean near Hebden Bridge, one of Peter Brook’s favourite locations, is an up-beat welcoming painting of a winter walk in the Pennines. Whether he gets a cup of tea is another matter! (Sold at Christie’s in 2013)
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Over the course of his career Peter Brook created a body of work featuring the festive season, ‘Late Delivery - Calling with a Christmas Card’ representing the period when he was experimenting with a series of moonlit paintings. Wonder if he had missed the last date for posting.
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Peter Brook is best known for his snow-covered landscapes, yet it is often the accompanying trees which create the bone-chilling feel of so many of his paintings, in ‘Pennine Valley’ their dark, skeletal forms towering above the roadside farmhouse and dominating the wintry scene.
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‘Christmas Eve in Slaithwaite with a Distracted Dog and a Baffled Sheep’ could only be by Peter Brook, the chimney sweep with his bag of soot and brush leaving the scene as Santa arrives.
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The fading light at the end of the day was one of Peter Brook’s favourite subjects. In ‘Pennine Sunset’ the sky has turned to orange and yellow, streaked with grey, while in the foreground the lengthening shadows suggest that darkness is not far away. (Photo credit: Parky’s Art)
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‘At first Rain - Then Snow and now Sleet’ is the sort of mixed bag of weather which appealed to Peter Brook, the combination of elements creating a challenging winter scene, with even the usual TEAS sign and slither of pink in the sky barely visible and unable to lift the mood.
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‘Drawing a Silent Pennine Valley’ is one of Peter Brook’s most dramatic portrayals of suddenly changing weather conditions, the dark threatening sky suggesting a storm is imminent and soon to engulf both Peter and Shep as they stand in a gap in the wall. (Photo credit: Examiner)
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‘On the Way from Reeth to Tan Hill and Stopped’, with Peter Brook and Shep presumably making for the well known Swaledale watering hole, at 1732 feet asl the highest in England, and looking like they’ve got a difficult journey ahead of them in weather conditions a bit like today.
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From the late 1960’s Peter Brook spent over 40 years painting remote Pennine farm houses and returned time and again to his favourite locations. In his later work like ‘Visiting Friends in High Paces, 2000’ the palette becomes much bolder, producing a warmer less austere feeling.
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‘Boxing Day’ is perhaps the prime example of Peter Brook’s modernist, almost minimalist work from the late 1960’s, in which he used solid tonal fields of contrasting black and white to portray the austerity of a Pennine winter landscape. (Sold by Bonhams in 2011)
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Peter Brook’s use of light is a feature often found in his work, in ‘Pennine Valley of White Farms’, possibly an early Derbyshire landscape, the dark brooding sky, in stark contrast to the brightly lit buildings, creating a striking image. (Sold by Lawrences Auctioneers in 2022)
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‘After a Long Grey Day in the Valley the Sun Comes Out’, one of Peter Brook’s most dramatic Pennine landscapes, is dominated by the bulk of Cheese Gate Nab, near Holmfirth, with Peter and Shep just coming into view as they climb towards us, emphasising the steepness of the slope.
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‘Midwinter - Lonely Pennine Farm’ must be one of Peter Brook’s ‘grimmest’ paintings, portraying the stark reality of life in one of the most remote areas of Yorkshire at this time of year. (Private collection)
@GrimArtGroup
#SnowArtWeekend
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Peter Brook often included traffic signs in his paintings, in ‘On the Road - Drawing’ the bright red GIVE WAY catching the eye and momentarily drawing it away from Peter and Shep, standing at the crossroads and pointing us along the line of telegraph poles towards the horizon.
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Some of Peter Brook’s early work was surprisingly colourful, as seen in this view of the Yorkshire seaside village of ‘Staithes’, its huddle of harbour-side buildings with their distinctive red roof tiles creating a particularly vibrant painting . (Bradford Museums and Galleries)
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Peter Brook was not always well received when walking near to a remote Pennine farm, but the waving figure in ‘A Greeting’ seems to be extending a warmer welcome, while the sheep peering out of the foreground has also spotted Peter’s arrival.
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In ‘Washing Lines in Terraced Streets, 1960’, one of a series of paintings from that time focussing on the domestic architecture of Brighouse, Peter Brook creates a feeling of movement, the eye drawn along the road as it sweeps round the bend past the laundry blowing in the wind.
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With Storm Isha expected to reek havoc across the country overnight today’s Peter Brook post had to be ‘Blizzard Conditions on the Pennines by an Abandoned Farm - Now for Sale’, with its agitated sky and broken power line flapping wildly in the wind. (Sold at Hartleys in 2019)
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‘Pennine Valley’ is a classic Peter Brook scene, the remote farmhouse set in a snow-covered landscape with only bare leafless trees, but it is the late afternoon light catching the front of the old building and its roof which brings the painting to life. (Sold by Bonhams in 2016)
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Some of Peter Brook’s bleakest paintings are those in which there is not a flake of snow to be seen. In ‘Dog - Give Way’ the stormy sky, dark brooding houses and the absence of any sign of life save for the forlorn looking dog create an ominous feel. (Sold at Christie’s in 2012)
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‘Pennine Ruins Last Christmas’ is a typical Peter Brook subject with a seasonal twist provided by the unexpected light in the old farmhouse window in what is otherwise a bleak winter scene with its solitary bird perched on the branch of an adjacent tree. (Photo credit
@clarkart
)
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Wild weather heading north today. No snow yet, but brings to mind Peter Brook’s ‘Blizzard Conditions on the Pennines by an Abandoned Farm now for Sale’ with its broken power line flapping in the fierce wind as Peter and Shep struggle up the hillside. (Sold at Hartleys in 2019)
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With the weather set to be a bit breezy over the next few days here’s ‘Blowing in the Wind - With a Dog called Bob and a Cat called Dylan - PTO’, one of Peter Brook’s most idiosyncratic paintings, and the equally quirky ‘It’s Shep really! He’s only acting!’ written on the back.
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With this week’s warm sunny weather it’s easy to forget the short winter afternoons portrayed in paintings like ‘4PM - The Wood Filling up with Snow’ with Peter Brook and Shep almost disappearing from sight as they head for home in the fading light on their last walk of the day.
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‘Lighting-Up Time’, officially designated as beginning half an hour after sunset, is a classic example of Peter Brook’s fondness for making the mundane and commonplace the subject of his paintings, which were of course always far from ordinary.
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The weather, particularly its tendency to sudden and dramatic changes, was a favourite Peter Brook theme. In ‘Drawing a Silent Pennine Valley’ the vivid purple sky suggests a storm, already sensed by the sheep sheltering against the wall, is not far away. (Photo credit: Examiner)
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‘Early Lamb and Larger Flakes Falling’, a classic later Peter Brook snow scene, includes many of his favourite motifs: TEAS advertised on the old roadside farmhouse, the ewe and its lamb sheltering by the wall and Peter and Shep, just visible as they disappear into the distance.
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Actor Rodney Bewes, aka ‘Likely Lad’ Bob Ferris, acquired a considerable collection of Peter Brook’s early work, subsequently sold by Bonhams in 2012, including ‘Mill with Red Blinds’, a painting which makes you feel cold with its undisturbed expanse of snow and grey winter sky.
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