The West Front of Clumber House, Nottinghamshire 

William Collins created this painting of The West Front of Clumber House using oil on canvas. The strokes are visible in the sky and landscape; he blended these together, building up the image gradually. Collins's artistic approach emphasizes the material and process of painting itself, using techniques that were considered 'high art' at the time. Oil paints were manufactured and sold commercially, but artists mixed and applied them individually, making their own decisions. Here, he captures a scene of aristocratic life – the impressive Clumber House – set against the natural world. Look closely, and you can see a figure sitting on a felled tree in the foreground. The figure appears to be a worker; note the contrast between the person’s labor, and the leisurely estate in the background. The amount of work involved in the production process for Collins’s painting, the manufacture of the pigments, the grinding, mixing, and application of the paint, stand in sharp contrast to the lifestyle afforded by the estate.