This beautiful collection of works, although anonymous, are evidently the work of a hand of considerable talent, working in a style that was innovative for its time.
The artist's subjects range from English cottages and rural vistas with horse and cart, to small coastal scenes and seascapes, to Italianate (Turner-esque) views, moonlit landscapes and church interiors. Although some of the subjects may be observed topographies, the emphasis of the collection is on painting technique and recurring motifs: Italianate pine trees and silhouetted ruins, drinking cattle, rural houses and churches. Most important are the conditions of weather and light: storm clouds and rainbow (a motif used by Constable, Turner and Cox amongst others), sunset and moonlight, and attention to skies evocative of Constable.
The paintings combine watercolour wash, brown ink, and bodycolour in white and—distinctively—in blue. The artist also plays with positive and negative space in the moonlit scenes. Some of the paintings are particularly loose and impressionistic in technique: a virtuoso interpretation of Alexander Cozens's (1717–1786) radical blot method, whereby pupils were encouraged to compose their own imaginary 'poetic' drawings based on marks made in ink and watercolour. John Varley studied Cozens's drawings and from the 1830s also produced many small, imaginary landscape sketches in the blot method.
The collection comes from an album of watercolours by the same hand gifted to Agnes Minna Pearson (b.1834) by 'the adorable authoress née Lister'. Glue marks on the back of the watercolours indicate that they were previously mounted in another earlier album. One of the watercolours bears the watermark Turkey Mill Kent, possibly dating that paper to around 1819.
Agnes Minna Pearson was daughter of Henry Shepherd Pearson (1776–1840) and his wife Caroline Lyons (daughter of John Lyons of Antigua). Henry Shepherd Pearson was acting Governor of Penang from 1807 to 1808. Both sides of the family held senior positions in the navy, army and diplomatic service, including Agnes's grandfather Captain Sir Richard Pearson and her uncle Admiral Richard Pearson. An aunt on her mother's side, Catherine Lyons (1794–1857), was an artist. (We also have a collection of pictures penned by Agnes's sister Augusta.)
In 1867 Agnes married Richard Lister Venables, twenty-five years her senior, who was a friend at Cambridge of Charles Darwin. Richard had escorted Agnes and her sister Caroline to Westminster Abbey for the funeral of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. From 1865 to 1872 Richard had his curate at Clyro in Radnorshire, the parish of the famous diarist Rev. Francis Kilvert. There are a number of mentions of the family in the Kilvert diaries. It seems likely that the 'adorable authoress née Lister' who gifted Agnes the watercolours is connected with Richard Lister Venables.
