c.1890. This charming watercolour was painted by the Scottish artist, Henry John Dobson.

Dobson painted landscapes, portraits and anatomical sketches and religious anecdotes, but it was his genre painting that he became most known for. From the 1890s he almost exclusively painted scenes that depicted rural Scottish life. He particularly liked to paint domestic interior scenes which evoked feelings of kinship, humility and quiet contemplation. This watercolour being a perfect example.

The female figure looks to be a nursery nurse or nanny with her sky blue dress and neat hair covered with a white lace cap. She looks to be trying to feed a baby with what we can assume is either a type of formula or something medicinal, perhaps a traditional Scottish tonic.

Henry John Dobson was born in 1858 in Peeblessire. Little is known about his early life, other than his father was a wool merchant and did not approve of his son pursuing an art career.

Despite his father reportedly disowning him, Dobson went to train at the Trustees Academy School of Design in Edinburgh and then took further studies at the Royal Scottish Academy. He began exhibiting his work with RSA in 1880 and in 1890, he was admitted as a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours. It was around this time that this watercolour was likely painted as in the same year, he married Jeanie Charlotte Hannah Cowan and the two quickly began a family. The baby in the painting might indeed be based on one of Dobson’s own children.

The watercolour is on thick artist’s paper which is mounted on board. The gilt frame is of the period and very likely to be original to the painting. It has some age related wear including chips and loss of gilding.

Frame measures 52cm x 46cm

Aperture 29cm x 24cm