'Extensive fields of our forefathers': Some Prospect Drawings of Common Fields in Northamptonshire by Peter Tillemans, c. 1719–21

Abstract

This article presents a number of prospect drawings of various parts of Northamptonshire, made by the Flemish artist, Peter Tillemans, between 1719 and 1721. These views provide the rural historian with what are probably the earliest artistic representations of the unenclosed landscape in England and a unique visual reference to Northamptonshire's open fields and commons just before the parliamentary enclosure movement began. The article will examine these views to demonstrate first of all how the prospect compositional style was suited to the artistic treatment of Northamptonshire's open fields and commons, and to show that this landscape was more varied and not as bleak as later pro-enclosure commentators would have it. It will also be demonstrated how some views appear to suggest that common land continued to play an accepted part in the county's economic and cultural development at this time, while others clearly give an indication of incipient and inevitable change in the landscape as the century progressed.