Thomas Hearne (artist)

[2][3] Hearne's watercolours were typified by applying a wash of subtle subdued colours over a clear outline in fine brush, pen or pencil.

One of his biographers, Simon Fenwick, suggests that the nearby Malmesbury Abbey proved an inspiration to Hearne's later interest in Gothic architecture.

[6] In its early years, the Royal Society of Arts offered prizes—which it called "premiums"—for people who could successfully achieve one of a number of published challenges.

Early in 1771 Hearne spent six weeks with Woollett and the young George Beaumont in Henstead, Suffolk at the home of the latter's tutor at Eton, Revd Charles Davy.

[8] In 1771 Hearne travelled to the Leeward Islands after newly appointed Governor-General, Sir Ralph Payne commissioned 20 large landscapes (including ten of Antigua).

In 1777, in conjunction with engraver William Byrne (1743–1805), Hearne began work recording and illustrating the country's historic monuments for The Antiquities of Great Britain.

During the extensive tour of Britain which the work necessitated, Hearne studied nature with care, investing his topographical drawings with effects of light and atmosphere seldom attempted by previous draughtsmen in watercolour.

[11] Richard Payne Knight, enthusiast of the 'picturesque' style, commissioned Hearne to produce several drawings of the grounds of his home, Downton Castle in Herefordshire.

At the 1857 Manchester Exhibition works by Hearne included: Old Ruin and Trees; Glasgow; and Holy Island Cathedral.

[17] From the 1900s, art historian and collector Adolph Oppé, took an interest in 18th- and early 19th-century British watercolours, a subject which had been little studied before.