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Webster, Mary (1794-1883)
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Description
Webster, Mary (1794-1883)
Three albums of watercolour views of British scenery, 1830s-50s
all oblong folio, maroon half roan, containing in total approx. 174 watercolour views (generally 17 x 25cm to 20 x 27cm) on thick-paper mounts (30 x 40cm), mainly on rectos only, each mount with Webster's manuscript caption, date and signature, comprising views of and in British towns, cities and villages, and of individual buildings (including ruins, churches, country houses), consistently populated with figures, often including a lady in a bonnet, sketching or with companions, possibly a self-portrait by Webster, albums comprise: ‘Sketches from Nature by Mary Webster, 1838 and 1839’, 21 watercolours, mainly depicting modern London (Greenwich Park, Kensington Palace, ‘Bridge at Kensington’, Plumstead, Sudbury, Harrow, Tottenham, Stamford Hill) and Brighton, several leaves removed but with 40 later watercolours (dated 1840s and 1850s) loosely inserted, including views of or around Crystal Palace, Canterbury, Eastbourne, Cromer, Herne Bay, country houses (Perrymount in Sydenham and White Knights in Reading, both now demolished), ‘An Interior’, a humorous sketch of a sea monster, etc.; ‘Sketches from Nature', 1840-3, gilt-lettered on front cover ‘M. Webster 1840’, 65 watercolours, including Gloucestershire (Dowdeswell, Cheltenham, Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle, Gloucester), Oxford (Merton College, Magdalen College), Middlesex (Harrow, Richmond, Hampton Court, numerous scenes in Sudbury), Sussex (Sompting, Worthing, Bramber, Arundel), London (Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, including soldiers marching), Kent (mainly Broadstairs), and elsewhere; ‘Views in Sussex, sketched from nature by Mary Webster', 1842-50, decorative title-page (loose), 48 watercolours, including Eastbourne (including the railway station, 1850, a year after its construction), Herstmonceux, Southfield ('the residence of Sir W. Domville’), Compton Place ('The seat of Lord Burlington'), Battle Abbey, Pevensey Castle, Michelham Abbey, Bognor, Felpham, etc;together with an original oil painting on panel, 17.5 x 25.5cm, unsigned but evidently by Webster, depicting a lady seated in a rural landscape with two child companions, a country house in the distance
By descent to the present owner.
Mary Webster was the eldest of 11 children born to John Webster, minister at Inverarity, near Dundee, and his wife, also Mary. On John's death in 1807 the family moved to nearby Carmyllie and subsequently to London. The family appears to have continued to live together, the address which Mary provides in the first album, 24 Brook Street, also being the recorded address of her eminent brother John Webster MD FRCP FRS (1794-1876), who ‘devoted much time and labour to the examination of lunatic asylums, prisons, and medical institutions at home and abroad’ (Royal College of Physicians, online). A collection of Mary's watercolours is held by Edinburgh Libraries, who remark that ‘the census records indicate that Mary was a lady of independent means, single, living in a household with her mother and grown-up siblings with servants. This would support the evidence that she was able to travel widely and pursue her painting pastime. She was described in her family as a woman who was talented, travelled widely, wrote and painted en plein air’. Many of the places shown in these albums, especially those in London, are depicted as rural villages unrecognisable from their modern state. For Mary Webster's autograph and scrap album see lot 75.
Three albums of watercolour views of British scenery, 1830s-50s
all oblong folio, maroon half roan, containing in total approx. 174 watercolour views (generally 17 x 25cm to 20 x 27cm) on thick-paper mounts (30 x 40cm), mainly on rectos only, each mount with Webster's manuscript caption, date and signature, comprising views of and in British towns, cities and villages, and of individual buildings (including ruins, churches, country houses), consistently populated with figures, often including a lady in a bonnet, sketching or with companions, possibly a self-portrait by Webster, albums comprise: ‘Sketches from Nature by Mary Webster, 1838 and 1839’, 21 watercolours, mainly depicting modern London (Greenwich Park, Kensington Palace, ‘Bridge at Kensington’, Plumstead, Sudbury, Harrow, Tottenham, Stamford Hill) and Brighton, several leaves removed but with 40 later watercolours (dated 1840s and 1850s) loosely inserted, including views of or around Crystal Palace, Canterbury, Eastbourne, Cromer, Herne Bay, country houses (Perrymount in Sydenham and White Knights in Reading, both now demolished), ‘An Interior’, a humorous sketch of a sea monster, etc.; ‘Sketches from Nature', 1840-3, gilt-lettered on front cover ‘M. Webster 1840’, 65 watercolours, including Gloucestershire (Dowdeswell, Cheltenham, Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle, Gloucester), Oxford (Merton College, Magdalen College), Middlesex (Harrow, Richmond, Hampton Court, numerous scenes in Sudbury), Sussex (Sompting, Worthing, Bramber, Arundel), London (Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, including soldiers marching), Kent (mainly Broadstairs), and elsewhere; ‘Views in Sussex, sketched from nature by Mary Webster', 1842-50, decorative title-page (loose), 48 watercolours, including Eastbourne (including the railway station, 1850, a year after its construction), Herstmonceux, Southfield ('the residence of Sir W. Domville’), Compton Place ('The seat of Lord Burlington'), Battle Abbey, Pevensey Castle, Michelham Abbey, Bognor, Felpham, etc;together with an original oil painting on panel, 17.5 x 25.5cm, unsigned but evidently by Webster, depicting a lady seated in a rural landscape with two child companions, a country house in the distance
By descent to the present owner.
Mary Webster was the eldest of 11 children born to John Webster, minister at Inverarity, near Dundee, and his wife, also Mary. On John's death in 1807 the family moved to nearby Carmyllie and subsequently to London. The family appears to have continued to live together, the address which Mary provides in the first album, 24 Brook Street, also being the recorded address of her eminent brother John Webster MD FRCP FRS (1794-1876), who ‘devoted much time and labour to the examination of lunatic asylums, prisons, and medical institutions at home and abroad’ (Royal College of Physicians, online). A collection of Mary's watercolours is held by Edinburgh Libraries, who remark that ‘the census records indicate that Mary was a lady of independent means, single, living in a household with her mother and grown-up siblings with servants. This would support the evidence that she was able to travel widely and pursue her painting pastime. She was described in her family as a woman who was talented, travelled widely, wrote and painted en plein air’. Many of the places shown in these albums, especially those in London, are depicted as rural villages unrecognisable from their modern state. For Mary Webster's autograph and scrap album see lot 75.
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Webster, Mary (1794-1883)
Three albums of watercolour views of British scenery, 1830s-50s
all oblong folio, maroon half roan, containing in total approx. 174 watercolour views (generally 17 x 25cm to 20 x 27cm) on thick-paper mounts (30 x 40cm), mainly on rectos only, each mount with Webster's manuscript caption, date and signature, comprising views of and in British towns, cities and villages, and of individual buildings (including ruins, churches, country houses), consistently populated with figures, often including a lady in a bonnet, sketching or with companions, possibly a self-portrait by Webster, albums comprise: ‘Sketches from Nature by Mary Webster, 1838 and 1839’, 21 watercolours, mainly depicting modern London (Greenwich Park, Kensington Palace, ‘Bridge at Kensington’, Plumstead, Sudbury, Harrow, Tottenham, Stamford Hill) and Brighton, several leaves removed but with 40 later watercolours (dated 1840s and 1850s) loosely inserted, including views of or around Crystal Palace, Canterbury, Eastbourne, Cromer, Herne Bay, country houses (Perrymount in Sydenham and White Knights in Reading, both now demolished), ‘An Interior’, a humorous sketch of a sea monster, etc.; ‘Sketches from Nature', 1840-3, gilt-lettered on front cover ‘M. Webster 1840’, 65 watercolours, including Gloucestershire (Dowdeswell, Cheltenham, Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle, Gloucester), Oxford (Merton College, Magdalen College), Middlesex (Harrow, Richmond, Hampton Court, numerous scenes in Sudbury), Sussex (Sompting, Worthing, Bramber, Arundel), London (Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, including soldiers marching), Kent (mainly Broadstairs), and elsewhere; ‘Views in Sussex, sketched from nature by Mary Webster', 1842-50, decorative title-page (loose), 48 watercolours, including Eastbourne (including the railway station, 1850, a year after its construction), Herstmonceux, Southfield ('the residence of Sir W. Domville’), Compton Place ('The seat of Lord Burlington'), Battle Abbey, Pevensey Castle, Michelham Abbey, Bognor, Felpham, etc;together with an original oil painting on panel, 17.5 x 25.5cm, unsigned but evidently by Webster, depicting a lady seated in a rural landscape with two child companions, a country house in the distance
By descent to the present owner.
Mary Webster was the eldest of 11 children born to John Webster, minister at Inverarity, near Dundee, and his wife, also Mary. On John's death in 1807 the family moved to nearby Carmyllie and subsequently to London. The family appears to have continued to live together, the address which Mary provides in the first album, 24 Brook Street, also being the recorded address of her eminent brother John Webster MD FRCP FRS (1794-1876), who ‘devoted much time and labour to the examination of lunatic asylums, prisons, and medical institutions at home and abroad’ (Royal College of Physicians, online). A collection of Mary's watercolours is held by Edinburgh Libraries, who remark that ‘the census records indicate that Mary was a lady of independent means, single, living in a household with her mother and grown-up siblings with servants. This would support the evidence that she was able to travel widely and pursue her painting pastime. She was described in her family as a woman who was talented, travelled widely, wrote and painted en plein air’. Many of the places shown in these albums, especially those in London, are depicted as rural villages unrecognisable from their modern state. For Mary Webster's autograph and scrap album see lot 75.
Three albums of watercolour views of British scenery, 1830s-50s
all oblong folio, maroon half roan, containing in total approx. 174 watercolour views (generally 17 x 25cm to 20 x 27cm) on thick-paper mounts (30 x 40cm), mainly on rectos only, each mount with Webster's manuscript caption, date and signature, comprising views of and in British towns, cities and villages, and of individual buildings (including ruins, churches, country houses), consistently populated with figures, often including a lady in a bonnet, sketching or with companions, possibly a self-portrait by Webster, albums comprise: ‘Sketches from Nature by Mary Webster, 1838 and 1839’, 21 watercolours, mainly depicting modern London (Greenwich Park, Kensington Palace, ‘Bridge at Kensington’, Plumstead, Sudbury, Harrow, Tottenham, Stamford Hill) and Brighton, several leaves removed but with 40 later watercolours (dated 1840s and 1850s) loosely inserted, including views of or around Crystal Palace, Canterbury, Eastbourne, Cromer, Herne Bay, country houses (Perrymount in Sydenham and White Knights in Reading, both now demolished), ‘An Interior’, a humorous sketch of a sea monster, etc.; ‘Sketches from Nature', 1840-3, gilt-lettered on front cover ‘M. Webster 1840’, 65 watercolours, including Gloucestershire (Dowdeswell, Cheltenham, Winchcombe, Sudeley Castle, Gloucester), Oxford (Merton College, Magdalen College), Middlesex (Harrow, Richmond, Hampton Court, numerous scenes in Sudbury), Sussex (Sompting, Worthing, Bramber, Arundel), London (Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, including soldiers marching), Kent (mainly Broadstairs), and elsewhere; ‘Views in Sussex, sketched from nature by Mary Webster', 1842-50, decorative title-page (loose), 48 watercolours, including Eastbourne (including the railway station, 1850, a year after its construction), Herstmonceux, Southfield ('the residence of Sir W. Domville’), Compton Place ('The seat of Lord Burlington'), Battle Abbey, Pevensey Castle, Michelham Abbey, Bognor, Felpham, etc;together with an original oil painting on panel, 17.5 x 25.5cm, unsigned but evidently by Webster, depicting a lady seated in a rural landscape with two child companions, a country house in the distance
By descent to the present owner.
Mary Webster was the eldest of 11 children born to John Webster, minister at Inverarity, near Dundee, and his wife, also Mary. On John's death in 1807 the family moved to nearby Carmyllie and subsequently to London. The family appears to have continued to live together, the address which Mary provides in the first album, 24 Brook Street, also being the recorded address of her eminent brother John Webster MD FRCP FRS (1794-1876), who ‘devoted much time and labour to the examination of lunatic asylums, prisons, and medical institutions at home and abroad’ (Royal College of Physicians, online). A collection of Mary's watercolours is held by Edinburgh Libraries, who remark that ‘the census records indicate that Mary was a lady of independent means, single, living in a household with her mother and grown-up siblings with servants. This would support the evidence that she was able to travel widely and pursue her painting pastime. She was described in her family as a woman who was talented, travelled widely, wrote and painted en plein air’. Many of the places shown in these albums, especially those in London, are depicted as rural villages unrecognisable from their modern state. For Mary Webster's autograph and scrap album see lot 75.
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