Raby Castle, Yorkshire

Raby Castle in County Durham was built by the prominent mNeville family in the 14th century. The artist Fielding was born in Yorkshire and the region’s landscape remained a favorite subject throughout his career. This watercolour is typical of Fielding’s atmospheric views. He often included spots of haze and raincloud in the distance. The art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) wrote about this technique of ‘driving the eye into the distance by the use of brown moorland foregrounds’ created with ‘wet broad sweeps of the brush’ in his book ‘Modern Painters’ in 1843.