This charming collection of watercolours are by Charles John Shore, 3rd Baron Teignmouth (1840–1915). Charles's grandfather was Sir John Shore, 1st Baronet, former Governor-General of India, and his father was Charles John Shore, 2nd Baron Teignmouth FRS, a British Conservative politician and Fellow of the Royal Society.
The collection comprises travel sketches 1875–1883, principally from the French Riviera, but extending also to Florence and Venice; the Alhambra; Switzerland; Scotland; and the Lake District. These sweet watercolours capture local architecture and people, views from hotel windows and studies of the play of light at dusk. Charles Shore was a well-educated and cultured man, and there was artistic talent in the family: his great-uncle was the artist Hubert Cornish (1757–1823), and his brother, Frederick William John Shore, 4th Baron Teignmouth (1844–1916), exhibited at the Royal Academy.
Many of Shore's watercolours depict views at Menton on the French Riviera, which in the late 19th century had a growing reputation as a health resort and was a favourite wintering destination for British and Russian aristocrats. Shore was at Menton December to March, 1880 to 1883—coinciding with Queen Victoria's sojourns there. Menton was popularised by a number of books attesting to the remedial qualities of its mild winter climate, such as Dr James Henry Bennet's 1861 'Winter and Spring on the Shores of the Mediterranean' and Dr Alexander M. Brown's 1872 'Wintering at Menton on the Riviera: A compagnon de voyage, with hints to invalids'. In Shore's paintings we can feel the appeal of a place where Brown describes: 'A cloudless sky, a vernal landscape, and genial atmosphere await the arrival, and it is consolatory to feel that for a season at least, an Alpine barrier shields one from the dread inclemencies of a northern winter.'
