Trees is a major work that depicts the artist’s garden. In its ravishing colour and radiating composition, it is a bold, thoroughly modern painting. Here domestic details of tennis court, tap, hose and bucket are set within the awe-inspiring presence of nature – the domesticated garden leading to the untamed bush. This work, which was shown in Cossington Smith’s first solo exhibition at Grosvenor Galleries in 1928 was criticised by anti-modernist critics but was also much-admired by artists who recognised its great strength and vitality.