John Dobbin

John, the son, did not follow the same trade as his father, who was a weaver working in Pease's Mill in Darlington town centre, but was apprenticed instead to a cabinet-maker in Grange Road.

[1][2] Dobbin's best-known work is the Opening of the Stockton to Darlington Railway, showing Ignatius Bonomi's Skerne Bridge, portrayed until 2003 on the reverse of Series E £5 notes issued by the Bank of England, where George Stephenson's portrait is shown along with the Rocket steam locomotive.

His second wife, Hannah Jones, came from an affluent family and probably paid for his Grand Tour of Europe.

Dobbin was fairly renowned in his day and enjoyed an audience with Isabella II of Spain, who gave him free rein to paint what he pleased in her country.

In a move that may have been inspired by his Italian trip, he turned to mosaic and worked for some six years cutting tiles for his version of The Last Supper.