‘Out in the Fields’ is a bronze sculpture created in 1879 by Arthur G. Atkinson and erected in the Herb Garden in Kew Gardens in 1929.
The sculpture had been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890 and in an exhibition of the work at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool in 1898 it was up for sale for £285 (cat. no. 1477). This would be equivalent to about £22,000 in today’s money.
The sculpture is in a secluded part of Kew Gardens, which you reach by walking from behind the Alpine House into the walled Herb (or Order) Garden, and it is in the far corner.
He was a sculptor and painter, born in Richmond and brought up in Kew. He exhibited 11 times at the Royal Academy and regularly at The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. His other works include:
Arthur Atkinson lived on Kew Green and would have wandered through the Kew Gardens many times and probably the subject of his bronze statue was one of the Kew Garden workers that he would have come across in the late 1800s. The worker has rested on his spade and gazed peacefully across the order beds since 1929.
