~ Tim Whittingham
Benjamin Haughton was a late Victorian painter of rural scenes, especially trees and woodlands. He painted with remarkable skill, portraying misty woodlands and sunlight reflected on water or filtered through foliage, his favoured subjects being always the quiet corners of the West Country where he was born.
Before the Great War he spent time on the Quantock Hills and painted an unknown number of canvases here. A few are clearly labelled as Quantock scenes but many more are titled just ‘Woodland’ or ‘Spring Evening’.
A large number of his works were donated by his family to the Portsmouth Museum and have not been seen for years but they are currently on display for twelve months in Portsmouth as The Quietness of Feeling: An Exploration of Trees through the Art of Benjamin Haughton and The Arborealists . We are looking forward to a visit and to seeing the catalogue.
All images courtesy of Portsmouth Museums and Visitor Services; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/on-the-quantocks-24624
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