Barnyard Scene
Etcher Francis Place British
After Francis Barlow British
Publisher Pierce Tempest British
Not on view
A cock and hen appear here in animated conversation before other barnyard fowl and an interested boar in a sty. The down-to-earth imagery relates to Barlow's illustrations for 1666 and 1668 editions of Aesop's Fables, although in this instance no moral is specified and the viewer is left to draw his or her own comparisons between the dynamics of the poultry yard and the foibles of human society. Naturalistic details, such as the foreground plants and the crumbling wall, underscore the character of the scene and have been freely etched by Place, an innovative native printmaker.
