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Hercules Brabazon Brabazon was born in Paris on 27 November 1821, the youngest
son of Hercules Sharpe of County Durham and Ann Brabazon of County Mayo, Ireland.
In 1832, the family returned to England and settled into their new country house,
Oaklands, in Sussex, built for them by Decimus Burton. Brabazon was educated
at Dr Hooker’s preparatory school, until 1835, when he began an unhappy
period at Harrow. This came to an end in 1837 when he transferred to a Pestalozzi
School in Geneva. Three years later he began to study mathematics at Trinity
College, Cambridge. Following his graduation, he flouted his father’s
wishes to read law and, as a result, travelled to Rome on a reduced allowance.
There he studied music at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and art at the Accademia
di San Lucca, and from then on concentrated on those two subjects. In 1847,
his elder brother died, and he succeeded to the Brabazon estates in Connaught,
by the terms of the will becoming Hercules Brabazon Brabazon. On 24 May 1848,
he left Rome and returned to England via Spain and France, encountering the
work of Velasquez for the first time; after Turner, Velasquez became the art
inspiration of his life. Following the death of his father in 1858, he also
inherited the family estate in Sussex, and appointed his brother-in-law Major
Combe to act as estate manager. Brabazon spent the summers in England, and winters
on the Riviera or travelling further afield. His major travels included a number
of visits to the Middle East, North Africa and India.
Brabazon began to produce his atmospheric watercolours and pastels in the eighteen-sixties.
Though he first appeared to be just a gentleman amateur, his unique talent was
soon recognised by John Ruskin, and later by Sargent, so that he straddled artistic
generations and approaches. In 1867, he was elected to the membership of the
Burlington Fine Art Club alongside Dante Gabriele Rossetti and Ruskin and, in
1880, accompanied Ruskin, Arthur Severn and Arthur Ditchfield on a sketching
tour of Amiens. Sargent met Brabazon in 1885, and was inspired by his work to
turn to watercolour. In 1891, he succeeded in encouraging Brabazon to join the
New English Art Club, an exhibit alongside its other members. His first solo
show took place at the Goupil Gallery in the following year, and was a critical
success. He attracted a following of younger artists, and counted Francis James
as a pupil. He died at Oaklands on 14 May 1906.
Chris Beetles has mounted a number of highly successful exhibitions of the work of Hercules Brabazon Brabazon. The most recent, entitled Art and Sunshine, was held in 1997 and accompanied by a large illustrated catalogue.
Exhibition: The Chris Beetles Summer Show 2007
