Artwork of the Month - November 2010
A View from Sark Across to Brecqhou, with Herm, Jethou, and Guernsey Beyond, 1888
Artist: Paul Jacob Naftel R.W.S. (1817-1891)
Medium: Watercolour
Status: Permanent collection
Item No.: GMAG 1978.28
About the Artist
This wonderful watercolour of a view from Sark is by Paul Jacob Naftel. He was the son of a local clockmaker, but his interests lay elsewhere, pursuing a career as a professional artist and tutor. He was the drawing master at Elizabeth College from 1841 until 1870 when he moved to London. Here he continued to exhibit and tutor such artists as Rose Maynard Barton R.W.S. (1856-1929) and Anne Butler, R.A. R.W.S. (1858-1941). Throughout his career he attracted many important patrons including Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), who said of his watercolour of a Guernsey Lane, 'I bought it in a London Exhibition for the truth to nature which it displays'.
