Library Item

Ben Vracky [Vrackie]

1819

The landscape painter and poet George Fennel Robson was born in Durham in 1788. He displayed an early enthusiasm for drawing, acquiring his artistic skills through practice and whatever instruction he could find. He moved to London in 1804 to pursue his career as an artist and made a meagre living selling his work from a carver and gilder's shop in Holborn. With the profits from the publication of a view of Durham he travelled to the Highlands of Scotland where he spent a year painting landscapes. He subsequently published Outlines of the Grampian Mountains, and continued to visit the region regularly throughout his career. He also visited and worked in the Lake District, Ireland and Wales. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and was an important member of the Society of Painters in Watercolour. He died in Stockton-on-Tees in 1833.