In the Fields Around London

In the Fields Around London was painted in 1875 during years when De Nittis made regular visits to England, developing an English side of his practice celebrated for views of the Thames, Hyde Park, and the London parks. The fields on the edge of Victorian London offered a different register from the city: open agricultural space pressing against the expanding metropolis, a landscape of transition between city and countryside that attracted painters seeking subjects away from gallery-worn central London views. De Nittis brought the same plein-air directness to English rural subjects that he applied to Parisian boulevards, finding in the gentle English countryside a palette of softer greens and cooler silvery light quite different from the intense Mediterranean light of his Apulian youth. These English countryside scenes circulated among British collectors who valued his ability to render their familiar landscape with fresh continental eyes.

The English countryside palette is cooler and more silvery than De Nittis's Italian or Parisian work, reflecting the softer, diffuse light of the Thames valley. The canvas features a low horizon with a generous sky, and agricultural elements provide scale within the broad landscape.