In the Orchard, Haylands, Graffham is a mature Sussex painting by Henry Herbert La Thangue, depicting a moment of quiet activity in the countryside around Graffham in West Sussex. A young woman moves through an orchard carrying a large basket filled with freshly gathered cherries. Other baskets lie on the grass nearby, while another worker is partly hidden among the trees. Although the subject is one of fruit gathering, La Thangue gives equal importance to the vegetation, sunlight and atmosphere. The result is not simply a record of agricultural labour, but an immersive image of rural life in which worker and landscape appear closely connected. The subject reflects La Thangue’s deep attachment to Sussex, where he had lived and worked for more than two decades. After settling at Haylands in Graffham, he repeatedly turned to the farms, fields and orchards around him, observing the seasonal rhythms of rural labour. Fruit gathering was a recurring interest in his work, with earlier paintings exploring activities such as plum picking and cider-making. This close observation was rooted partly in his early artistic development. During his years in France, La Thangue encountered the naturalist approaches of artists such as Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848-1884) and absorbed their commitment to painting directly from nature. Back in England, this developed into a highly personal form of rural naturalism. La Thangue’s handling became more delicate and varied than the broader, block-like brushwork of some of his earlier paintings, creating a more Impressionistic sense of light and movement. Exhibited at the Royal Academy only months after the end of the First World War, in 1919, the painting appeared at a moment when ordinary life was beginning to resume after years of disruption. Rather than confronting the war directly, La Thangue presents the enduring cycle of agricultural work and seasonal renewal. In the Orchard brings together labour, season, place and light, while reflecting La Thangue’s evolving Impressionistic handling and his return, after the upheaval of the First World War, to the enduring rhythms of the Sussex countryside. This note was written by Elsa Dikkes.