R.J. Blesard Glencoe, Scotland from Sketch by Alphonse Dousseau

R.J. Blesard: Yorkshire Landscapes (1832–34)

This painting forms part of an outstanding collection of topographical watercolours of Yorkshire views, which are the result of two summer tours in 1833 and 1834. They are the work of an R.J. Blesard, who is likely to be Robert John Blesard (1809–1839) of Woodhouse, Leeds. Described as 'Gentleman' in official records, he was the son of Robert Blesard (1773–1847), wool merchant, and his wife Susannah (1775–1855). The Blesards were a prominent Quaker family from the Guiseley area, related also to the Arthingtons, another wealthy Leeds Quaker family—the most famous of whom was Robert Arthington (1823–1900), philanthropist and recluse, known as the 'Headingley Miser'.

Robert Blesard is listed variously as resident at 18 and 21 Blenheim Terrace in Woodhouse—red brick villas now part of the University of Leeds. The Blesards are buried at Woodhouse Cemetery, along with many Leeds 'worthies'.

These pictures tell a story of the profits of Victorian northern industry and their associated cultural and charitable life. Robert John Blesard was a member of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society and his father donated to the Yorkshire Institution for the Deaf and the Dumb. In 1833 and 1834, aged 24–5, it appears that Robert John toured the Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire coast, painting topographical views in the vein of the newly popular illustrated travel annuals. The watercolours focus on natural and architectural features within the landscape, dramatically rendered with a Romantic sense of atmosphere and the sublime. A number of the locations had been painted by J.M.W. Turner in the preceding decades.

Robert John Blesard died of consumption aged just thirty, bringing a poignancy to these watercolours; his talents as a draughtsman apparently stayed undiscovered, remaining a work of private endeavour.

The collection bears the provenance of Captain Sir Charles Robert Bignold (1892–1970) of the prosperous Bignold family of Norwich, associated with the Norwich Union Insurance Company. Bignold was a distinguished collector of fine books and the outstanding watercolours in this collection are a testament to Bignold’s fine connoisseurship.