Anon. Church Tower & Ruin

William Burgess of Dover Collection

This picture is one of an interesting assortment of pictures, which were acquired together from a single collector and include a number of works by the eminent Dover artist William Burgess (1805–1861). Burgess was a painter and drawing master, who specialised in local Dover subjects, which sometimes featured military and naval elements. There are further naval and marine connections in the collection, spanning the early Victorian era to the early 20th century, which indicate the collector was possibly of Naval descent; an address associated with the collection is at Lowestoft.

Artists of interest featured in the collection include marine artist Neville Sotheby Pitcher (1889–1959), and Count Mario Grixoni (1885–1945), who was son and nephew of senior officers of the Army and Navy, and who as a young man started a Naval career. There is also an early view on the Nile, and a World War Two sketch in India. In addition, the collection features a number of typical Victorian subjects, such as a portrait of Queen Victoria’s dog Dash, along with a canine sketch by the eminent British-American canine painter Maud Earl (1864–1943), whose select clientele included members of the British royal family.