Haslehust mystery painting

Three years ago - see EW Haslehust ... and artfight! - I mentioned the work of Ernest William Haslehust (1855-1949), a watercolourist who specialised in slightly prettified, but nevertheless skilful and evocative, paintings of English landscapes and townscapes. His work was a mainstay of Blackie & Sons' classic Beautiful England series.

Arising from that, Susan Henderson sent me an image - reproduced by permission - of a  unknown Haslehust painting that belonged to her husband's grandmother.

click to enlarge

Does the scene ring any bells with anyone? I've made a best guess at perspective and lighting correction. My initial theory is that this is a mid-Victorian villa, judging by some stylistic features (the gabled porch and pseudo-Jacobean square profile chimney stacks) - compare these mid-1800s estate cottages in Kingston, Dorset, Betteshanger House., and South Lodge, Mentmore Towers. Any number of architects of this period were designing houses in approximately this style.

A quick skim of sources - so far unsuccessful - has produced some lovely books. Check out:

• Small country houses of to-day (Lawrence Weaver, 1922, Internet Archive ID smallcountryhous01weavuoft).
• Picturesque English cottages and their doorway gardens (PH Ditchfield, 1905, Internet Archive ID picturesqueengli00ditcuoft).
• Old cottages and farmhouses in Kent and Sussex (EG Dawber & WG Davie, 1900, Internet Archive ID oldcottagesfarmh00dawbrich).
• Country cottages and week-end homes (JH Elder-Duncan, 1912, Internet Archive ID countrycottagesw00eldeuoft).
• Modern cottage architecture, illustrated from works of well-known architects (MB Adams, 1904, Internet Archive ID cu31924014905008)

It makes for an interesting impression of the contribution of the moneyed middle to upper classes to the architectural stereotypes of the Home Counties landscape.

See also Haslehust Mystery Painting #2.

- Ray