Queen of the Dippers

The heatwave in the UK may have subsided, but this week we are at the seaside, with this brilliant 18th-century watercolour depicting the monumental Martha Gunn (1726–1815), Brighton's legendary 'Dipper', who helped women in and out of bathing machines in order to maintain their modesty when taking the waters. Martha Gunn was renowned for her strength and stamina, as well as her entrepreneurial spirit, capitalising on the new popularity of sea bathing. In a career that lasted nearly seventy years, her celebrity spread throughout the country and she became a favourite of George Augustus Frederick, the Prince of Wales.

The watercolour bears similarity to the street portraits of the provincial itinerant artist John Dempsey (1802–1877), particularly his subject 'Bathing woman, Bridlington', c.1825—but the subject, and the paper watermarked 1794, significantly predate Dempsey. The work is faintly inscribed on the verso 'No.6 North Parade' —is this North Parade Brighton, or possibly Bath? A number of the 18th-century caricaturists worked in Brighton, satirising the fashionable seaside resort of the extravagant Prince of Wales, including James Gillray, Robert Dighton and Thomas Rowlandson. The watercolour is rather in the vein of Dighton's and Gillray's caricatural figure portraits. Or perhaps the drawing was produced by one of Brighton's numerous skilled profilists or silhouettists, who plied their trade in the town.

VIEW IMAGE 1: Martha Gunn, The Celebrated Bather, Brighton – 18th-century watercolour painting (STOCK NUMBER: KD-801).
Image 2: Martha Gunn and the Prince of Wales by John Russell © Brighton & Hove Museums;
Image 3: Martha Gunn the Old Brighton Bather by Robert Dighton © National Portrait Gallery, London;
Image 4: AUGUST - Bathing at Brighton c.1829 by George Cruikshank;
Image 5: French Invasion or Brighton in a Bustle by John Colley Nixon (detail);
Image 6: Bathing woman, Bridlington, c.1825 by John Dempsey (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart);
Image 7: A Lyoness, 1801 by James Gillray © Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University