Fine Arts: Sumptuous pastoral scenes evoke a more natural time

Landscapes by Percy French and equine studies by Herring feature heavily in Bonham’s British & European Art collection

What more calming sight is there than the feast of pastoral scenes due to go under the hammer at Bonham’s in London this week? Picture: Bonham’s

Until the rise of Romanticism in the late 18th century, paintings of landscapes were regarded as “reportage”, or something to be used as the backdrop to a portrait, rather than art in their own right.

Today, they are prized as a record of life before much of our landscape was obliterated as we catapulted into the industrial age. What more calming sight is there than the feast of pastoral scenes due to go under the ...