Hercules B Brabazon

Hercules Brabazon’s Venetian study displays remarkable economyof line and colour. Applied freely to grey paper, a few carefully placed touches of strong pigment and washes of white gouache evoke a Venice shaped by light. The view looks west from the Ponte dell’Accademia, adopting a vantage point favoured by J. M. W. Turner, whose handling of light and colour Brabazon deeply admired. Originally trained in mathematics at Cambridge, Brabazon abandoned an expected academic career after receiving a family inheritance, devoting his life to art, music and travel. Although he considered himself a gentleman amateur and resisted exhibiting for decades, encouragement from friends including John Singer Sargent finally persuaded him to exhibit his work publicly in 1891, at the age of seventy.

(Timeless: Treasures from the Historical Collection 19 September 2026 – 30 May 2027)