R.J. Blesard's Old Masters

From our collection of drawings and watercolours after Old Masters by R.J. Blesard—believed to be by Robert John Blesard (1809–1839) of Woodhouse, Leeds. The pictures reflect the young artist's wide-ranging interest in the arts (as a member of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society) and his versatility as a draughtsman. The varied subjects—biblical stories, classical antiquity, mythology, phrenology, 18th-century portraiture—suggest an exploration of the themes and styles pertinent to an understanding of Western art. But they also are often reinterpreted through Blesard's personal style and taste for the darkly Romantic and Gothic; a penchant indebted it seems to the macabre of Henry Fuseli and the mysticism of William Blake.