The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently aquired a Joseph Arthur Pallister Severn (1842-1931) watercolour from the Maas Gallery, showing the Old Man Coniston from the gardens of John Ruskin's home at Brantwood, with a pencil sketch of a boat on the back.
This watercolour was probably exhibited with a group at the Fine Art Society in 1901, which were noticed by the critic of The Illustrated London News: ‘[Severn] has essentially that love of Nature which makes a man, and especially an artist, eager to surprise her secrets; and it would seem that at sunset most frequently in communion with her. There are at least half-a- dozen such studies in this collection which show remarkable insight into, and appreciation of, the beauty of clouds at sunset, those on the Cumberland coast being especially noteworthy. In all his work - whether in the Lake District, on the Normandy coast, or in Switzerland - Mr. Arthur Severn is always suggestive; and his careful work often rises to high level’ (29 June 1901, p 952).
