The Painting
A watercolour measuring 5" x 8". Signed J. Fletcher-Watson. Inscribed verso: ‘Little
Barrington, Glos, 22 Aug 83’. Labels verso: (1) ‘Little Barrington Barns, Gloucestershire
/ Exhibition Windrush, June 1984 / J. Fletcher-Watson R.I. R.B.A., Windrush House,
Windrush, Nr. Burford, Oxford’. (2) Donald Macpherson, Oxford.
About the Artist
James Fletcher-Watson RI, RBA (1913-2004) was a watercolour landscape painter and
an architect. He started exhibiting at the age of twenty, and later held one-man
exhibitions in America, Australia and London. During the Second World War, he was
dispatched to India with the Royal Engineers to design forward runways into Burma.
He sketched and painted wherever he went, and his pictures of India and Burma were
subsequently published in a book, Soldier Artist in Wartime India. He was a member
of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour and the Royal Society of British
Artists. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and received an award at the Paris salon.
He wrote a number of teaching books on watercolour painting. After moving to the
Cotswolds, he established the Windrush Gallery near Burford, where he held annual
exhibitions.
The Subject
Little Barrington Barns, Gloucestershire. The 18th-century barn in the centre of
the painting, with the gabled doorway, is known as Moonlight Barn. The house to its
right dates from the 17th century and is known as Village Farmhouse. Both are listed
Grade II.
