This interesting collection of 19th-century works were in the possession of Margaret Capel Cure, daughter of Reverend Laurence George Capel Cure and Augusta Elizabeth Smith (daughter of Sir Charles Joshua Smith 2nd Bt). The family home was the rectory at Abbess Roding in Essex.
The collection was compiled by Margaret largely during the 1870s and 1880s, and comprises works by her siblings, cousins and friends, as well as many charming watercolours by Margaret herself. The works are a testament to the artistic talents and influences of the Capel Cure family: the accomplishments in watercolour of Margaret's great-great-grandmother Harriet Carr (1771–1848) and her great-uncle Robert Henry Cheney (1801–1866), and the Italian connoisseurship of her great-uncle Edward Cheney (1803–1884) at Badger Hall, Shropshire. Edward Cheney amassed an important collection of Venetian paintings and drawings, and he was friend and patron of the artist Thomas Hartley Cromek ANWS (1809–1873), to whom there is a watercolour attributed in this collection.
Notably, the collection includes a watercolour by Margaret's grandmother, Frederica Cure (née Cheney c.1803) who was married to the High Sheriff of Essex, Capel Cure, and resided at Blake Hall, Bobbingworth. Frederica's mother was Harriet Carr (1771–1848), an accomplished artist who spent much time in Italy and whose talents were brought to the attention of Joseph Farington. One of her sons was the early pioneer of photography Alfred Capel Cure.
The collection also includes works by the talented hand of Margaret's cousin, Florence Le Marchant Tupper. Florence was the only daughter of Lieutenant-General Sir Gaspard le Marchant Tupper CB (1826–1906), who had been trained at Sandhurst in topographical drawing and was an accomplished amateur landscape artist. It is believed that Florence Le Marchant Tupper may have been the anonymous female donor of £40,000 to the National Gallery in 1909, a sum which at the eleventh hour secured the gallery's acquisition of Holbein's famous portrait Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan. The donation was offered on the condition that her name was never revealed.
