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Mary Webster's watercolours of Scottish travels

Mary Webster's watercolours of Scottish travels
Mary Webster's watercolours of Scottish travels
Girls and young women of upper class families of the 18th century didn't usually learn domestic or academic skills but were coached in what were known as ‘accomplishments’. These would be learned either at boarding school or from a resident governess. In Jane Austin’s 'Pride and Prejudice', the snobbish Caroline Bingley lists the skills required by any young lady who considers herself accomplished:
"A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages…"

During the 19th century both landscape painting, as a subject matter, and the medium of watercolour became a popular pastime and were included in the Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy summer exhibitions. Queen Victoria’s interest in watercolour made the practice attractive to both professionals and amateurs and another suitable artistic accomplishment for a refined young woman.

By the mid 19th century, transportation was getting much easier with the railway network flourishing. By 1852 there was 7,000 miles of rail track in England and Scotland. With the advent of the railway, there was in turn, the need for accommodation. During the Victorian era, when you stepped out of a railway station in any self-respecting town or city, the first building you would set eyes upon would be the railway hotel, providing a relatively safe option for a young woman travelling alone.

We have a fine collection of watercolour paintings by a woman named Mary Webster which span the period 1824 to 1863. She seems to have greatly enjoyed travelling Scotland and further afield sketching her adventures. Initially, despite exhaustive searches, we had been unable to find out much about Mary's life, other than the few clues that are contained in the pictures themselves.

There was a short entry in The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture which stated that her work had been exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy. However, searching the RSA Exhibitors Catalogues from 1830-1860 failed to turn up any trace of Mary and we have been unable to verify this assertion.

Reading Museum also hold a painting by Mary Webster - ‘A naive view of the ruins of Reading Abbey’ - but they had no further information about her either.

The dates of the paintings and pencil drawings in our collection date from 1824 to 1863 and the majority of the paintings had been bound together in an album titled 'Views from Nature'. 1830 was a particularly busy time for Mary as 44 paintings are credited to that year alone! Of the 150 paintings in the collection, all but 9 feature Scottish views. Her painting travels took her far and wide, including to the Borders, Perthsire, Fife, the Highlands and Dublin. We didn't know if Mary was Scottish, or whether she simply enjoyed taking artistic tours of Scotland. A lady in a red dress appears in many of the watercolours, sometimes even sketching, could this be a companion or even a representation of Mary herself?

Apart from one painting dated 1845, there is a gap in Mary’s timeline of 17 years between 1830 and the next batch of paintings covering 1847 to 1863. In that 17 years, was her time spent bringing up a family we wondered? Or is there perhaps another collection hidden away somewhere else?

Then, out of the blue we were contacted from Australia by a relative of Mary’s. She was able to confirm that within the family Mary was described as a woman who was talented, travelled widely, wrote and painted en plein air. With further information we were able to learn a lot more about Mary. She was born in Scotland in 1794, the eldest of eleven children. We were able to trace Mary in the census records from Scotland to London and back again. We confirmed that Mary had never married and we now knew there were paintings and sketchbooks completed during those 17 ‘missing years’ while Mary travelled through England.

The last year for our paintings is 1863 which is attached to two watercolours of St Andrews.
It was in St Andrews that Mary died on 5 April 1883 aged 89 where she was living with her sister Elizabeth.

Read more about Mary Webster’s family history in her artist record and about how we discovered more about her life on our blog.