This intriguing collection of watercolours by a single hand have with a connection to the Dover area in Kent and in particular to the estate of Old Park at Whitfield, northeast of Dover. There are a number of views at Old Park, which was the home of Major Robert Bartholomew Lawes (c.1823–1907), who was a major in the Militia, Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent. Additional landscapes are at Dover Castle, Windsor Park, Hughenden and Haddon Hall, as well as military subjects in Ayrshire and near Hamburg in Germany.
The collection also includes many informal portraits of statesmen, aristocrats, politicians and military leaders on horseback, indicating that the artist was someone acquainted with figures of this stature. These notable figures and sights were apparently encountered first-hand and later recreated on paper, giving the paintings particular appeal. The background landscapes of the watercolours are atmospherically rendered in sweeping washes, whilst minute details of figures or animals are picked out with touches of bodycolour. Their grand and stately subjects—castles, estates, diginatories, even royalty—are presented with a quirky and charming informality.
Robert Bartholomew Lawes's father, also Robert Lawes, was in 1824 made a Freeman of the City of London as a member of the Painter Stainers’ Company. Did artistic interests run in this family? Are these pictures the work of Major Robert Bartholomew Lawes?
