Henry Hemming Dock Leaf Plant Study

An original 1840s watercolour painting, Henry Hemming, Dock Leaf Plant Study.

A delicate drawing in brown ink and wash.

Henry Hemming is either Henry Keene Hemming (1793–1847/68) of Grays, Essex, and of Upper Tooting, Surrey, or his son, Henry Hemming (1819–1903).

Henry Senior was land agent to William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, for the Lismore Castle estate in Ireland. He married Sophia Wirgman, daughter of Gabriel Wirgman, a successful London goldsmith and jeweller. His children also included the Canadian politician Edward John Hemming and the barrister George Wirgman Hemming.

This drawing is one of a small collection of works by Henry Hemming produced in the 1840s that we have for sale. One of the drawings depicts Ballyrafter House, which the Duke of Devonshire built in 1830 as an exclusive hunting and fishing lodge for his Lismore estate. Other Irish locations are also depicted, along with views in North Wales, and landscape compositions in the manner of Claude and Poussin.

On buff-coloured paper.