This ethereal collection of watercolours are the work of a female traveller of some privilege at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Our artist seems to have been particularly interested in sea, river and lake landscapes, choosing to travel by boat and preferring to depict views of—and often indeed from—the water. This was clearly a young woman of some means and accomplishment, whom it appears travelled with a female companion (see photograph, pictured for information only).

Our traveller visited the Italian Lakes and French Côte d'Azur in April 1904, then went on to tour the Baltic Sea coastlines of Germany, Denmark and Sweden in August and September of the same year. In July 1905 she was in Hampshire, then in August her travels took her Scotland. Her paintings connect these varied landscapes through their loose application of wash and a muted blue-grey palette, producing ethereal watery vistas where horizon runs into sky.

Her locations tells of the genteel experience of travel at the turn of the century: with views from the grand Victorian hotels that sprang up on the Italian Lakes, and from Villa Cynthia at Cap Martin on the Côte d'Azur—where just three years later Auguste Rodin lodged when visiting Joseph Pulitzer to sculpt his bust. The Baltic locations are evidence of the development of sea trade in the 19th century and the opening up of cities such as Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn and St Petersburg to travellers. The region's extensive waterways were at its heart, with impressive new constructions such as the Göta Canal, linking the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, providing access to the more remote locations. At the same time, the Baltic also fulfilled Romantic tastes for ideas of wilderness and mystery, and popular notions of celtic and norse revivalism.