Isabella Foster (fl.1830s–1860s) was evidently an accomplished artist, but extensive searches have been unable to confirm her identity. She most likely received lessons from a drawing master: her focus on architectural topography and her draughtsmanship in pencil—assuredly modelled with fluidity of line—suggest the distinct influence of Samuel Prout (1783–1852).
There are a small number of works in the collection dating from the late 1830s, depicting views around Rome and Naples, where her style is notably less mature. 'Foster' is most probably her married name; Isabella's journey to the Holy Land appears not to have been solo (she refers to 'our Dahabeah at Aswan') and one of the drawings features a man of western appearance sketching (or writing) in the foreground.
The drawings depicting sites of antiquity in Egypt, Ottoman Palestine and Lebanon in 1851–2 are a striking record of a region that was at that time just opening up to the British traveller. It seems likely that Isabella Foster was influenced by the work of David Roberts RA RBA (1796–1864), who between 1842 and 1849 had published his magnum opus, 'The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia', which contained 250 lithographs by Louis Haghe of Roberts's watercolour sketches. Foster's work is similar to Roberts's in subject and style; many of the locations that she visited feature in Roberts's travelogue.
David Roberts's publication fed a growing fascination in Victorian Britain for the Holy Land and its ancient sacred sites. The region was of particular appeal to the Christian traveller; at this time the British presence in Palestine, in missionary activity and archeological pursuits, was most specifically driven by an evangelical Protestantism that situated itself in direct opposition to Catholicism. Britain in the 19th century also saw an increasing ‘Egyptomania', although it was not until the 1870s that Thomas Cook set the way for mass tourism to the area with the introduction of steamboats on the Nile. In the 1850s the only way to travel into Upper Egypt was by local dahabeah boat. Travel to the extent and duration of Isabella Foster's was no mean feat for its time and would have been a costly endeavour.
Isabella Foster must have been born into, or married into, wealth—most likely both. The Foster name was most prominently associated with the Worcestershire ironworks of James Foster (1786–1853), inherited by his nephew William Orme Foster (1814–1899). William married an Isabella (Grazebrook) (1824–1910) in 1843. The family were enormously wealthy, with attendant access to contemporary arts and culture: James Foster owned works by David Roberts RA and William's collection featured a Constable, whilst his library included Alexander William Kinglake's illustrated odyssey to the Holy Land, 'Eothen, or Traces of Travel brought Home from the East'. William and Isabella's grandson became an artist and composer (Lord Berners), but we have not found evidence of Isabella's artistry. Connection between this Foster family and our artist is speculation, and her identification remains elusive.
