Landscape
The views present a serene landscape rather than depictions of the struggle of the work of farm labourers. This painting appears to feature a farmhouse, with members of the farming family. cows in a nearby field and a church steeple in the distance. A pond is highlighted in the foreground.
Joseph Thors was born in Amsterdam in the mid-1830s but by 1861 he was living in London, where he was based for the rest of his life, although he travelled widely through the English countryside, finding inspiration in the woodlands of the Midlands and Home Counties. Inspired by pastoral imagery, the artist created landscapes with quiet streams and winding paths, populated by cottages or farmhouses, people and animals.
By the late 1860s Joseph Thors was exhibiting work at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Society of British Artists in London. Today, the artist’s work is held in the collections of Shugborough Hall in Great Haywood, the Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, the National Trust in Sunnycroft, and the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, among others.