Lake scene

Hercules Brabazon Brabazon (1821-1906) was a British gentleman traveller and amateur watercolour artist.¹ He was born in Paris, however in 1832 his family moved to a new estate in Sussex, called Oaklands. After Brabazon graduated with a B.A. in mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1844, his father encouraged him to study law. Instead, Brabazon left England to study music and art at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

Brabazon pursued a leisurely life of travel and art, which was made possible especially after he inherited family estates in Connaught in 1847 and Oaklands in 1858. With this ample inheritance, he travelled as far as North Africa and India, and produced numerous watercolours and pastels on those trips. While he was mostly self-taught, this did not diminish his skill in any way. In fact, the English writer and art critic John Ruskin was known to praise him as Turner’s successor as a colourist. Despite such high praise, Brabazon only started exhibiting his works publicly in his seventies, after encouragement from his artist friends, like John Singer Sargent.

His atmospheric watercolours, like Lake Scene, were quickly executed and demonstrate his characteristic loose handling and vigorous brushstrokes. This work shows off his skilful handling of watercolour, combining bleeding colours with white gouache and faint charcoal lines to create a sense of fleeting impressions of light. There is a certain harmony in the colours, and the seemingly random blotches of pigments reflect the natural variety of flora in the landscape.

¹An amateur artist was someone who did not produce art in order to secure a regular income with it, but rather pursued it as a hobby or recreational pastime outside of their other career. Many amateurs, like Brabazon, were part of the social elite of their times, as painting and drawing could often be an exclusive and expensive hobby, particularly if a drawing master’s or mistress’ services were employed.

Further reading:

Beetles, Chris (1997), Art and Sunshine. The Work of Hercules Brabazon Brabazon 1821-1906, Chris Beetles Limited.

Mallalieu, H.L. (1986), The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920: Volume I – The Text, 2nd edition, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club.