In 1953 Robert Colquhoun was among one hundred artists invited to paint large pictures on the theme ‘Figures in their Setting’ for an exhibition initiated by the Contemporary Art Society. Colquhoun produced one of his largest and most resolved compositions, Figures in a Farmyard which, unusually, was preceded by numerous studies and smaller oil paintings. At this time Colquhoun and his partner, Robert MacBryde, were living at Tilty Mill, a rundown farmhouse in Essex. This work is an invented composition, but was evidently inspired by the pig farm near his then home.