Subject
A cooper repairs a barrel in a farmyard. To the left stand two draught-horses in harness, their heads hidden behind a well. The farmyard also contains a variety of agricultural or industrial materials and a farm cart. Signed in pencil. Aspects of the scene consciously allude to Renaissance printmaking but the composition also suggests awareness of contemporary Symbolist constructions of pictorial space, such as that seen in Edward Burne-Jones The Mill: Girls Dancing to Music by a River (1882).
