De Wint O.W.S., Peter (1784 – 1849) – Haymakers at Rest on the Lincolnshire Wolds.

De Wint is synonymous with Lincolnshire. In 1810 he married Harriet Hilton, sister of the Lincoln painter William Hilton R.A. (1786-1839), and regularly visited the city. Much of his work is of the surrounding countryside. This is just the sort of scene that he would have witnessed from the Bluestone Heath Road. De Wint paints with great freedom, loading his brush heavily with water and pigment. Here he captures the great expanse of land and sky high up on the Wolds with broad strokes. In the middle distance a group of haymakers break from their work, the seated, hunched figures captured in lively conversation with only the most economical of touches from his brush. There is a larger version of this composition in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. An earlier oil painting of harvesters in the Usher Gallery demonstrates the long lasting influence these scenes had on his work.