DOUGLAS PERCY BLISS (1900-1984)
The scarecrow
signed and dated D.P. Bliss/1925 (lower centre)
ink, watercolour and bodycolour with scratching out
29 cm (11½ in), diameter


PROVENANCE:
Acquired from the artist


The piece relates to the poem by Walter de la Mare Scarecrow:

All winter through I bow my head
beneath the driving rain;
the North Wind powders me with snow
and blows me black again;
at midnight 'neath a maze of stars
I flame with glittering rime,
and stand above the stubble, stiff
as mail at morning-prime.
But when that child called Spring, and all
his host of children come,
scattering their buds and dew upon
these acres of my home,
some rapture in my rags awakes;
I lift void eyes and scan
the sky for crows, those ravening foes,
of my strange master, Man.
I watch him striding lank behind
his clashing team, and know
soon will the wheat swish body high
where once lay a sterile snow;
soon I shall gaze across a sea
of sun-begotten grain,
which my unflinching watch hath sealed
for harvest once again.

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