Old Chapel of Hall Farm, Bodnick, Fowey, Cornwall

Old buildings, especially rural and often ruined churches, had interested Piper since childhood. In his art, he approaches these structures much as British Romantic artists approached nature—as repositories for mood and sentiment. This watercolor is one of many that resulted from a trip the artist took to Cornwall in 1943. The ancient chapel emerges from a dark landscape built up with layers of densely applied pigment. The pale stones, though crumbling with age, are tinted with warm grays and tans. They glow against the deep browns and blacks, becoming a metaphor for endurance (2022).