Alice Horton Villa Ca’ Conti, Granze, Veneto, Italy

Alice Horton: Travel Sketches 1899–1904

This watercolour forms part of a charming collection of works that we have for sale by Alice Horton. The collection comprises sketches from the artist's travels between 1899 and 1904. She visits popular tourist destinations in Europe, taking in Venice, Pisa and Lucca in Italy, sites in the Austrian Tyrol and Dolomites, and the Swiss Lakes.

More unusually as well, she documents her 'Voyage to Bermuda' in 1899. Bermuda at this time was of great strategic importance to the British Royal Navy and the site of a large Bermuda Garrison. It is unknown whether Alice Horton's visit was related to some connection with the military, or whether she was one of the increasing number of affluent Victorian tourists drawn to the island. Before the advent of air travel, travellers would arrive by sea, and in Horton's pictures of Bermuda, and indeed of Europe, there is an emphasis on coastal subjects: with fishing boats, gondolas, rivers and lakes evidencing the significance of waterways and sea travel at this time.

Accompanying the sketches was a quote from the French poet, novelist and fabulist Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, which perhaps sums up the pleasure which Alice Horton finds in her art: 'J'observe et je suis la nature, / C'est mon secret pour être heureux'.