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Copyright © 2008-2011 Hargrave Fine Art, Geddington, Northants

Charles Edward Hern

The High Cross, College Green, Bristol

The Painting

A watercolour measuring 9" x 5½". Signed C.E. Hern RAAS. Dated verso 1890. Provenance: sometime with Barbara Rubenstein Fine Art (label verso).

About the Artist

Charles Edward Hern (1848-1894) was born in New South Wales, Australia. He was a landscape and architectural painter. At the time of producing this watercolour he lived at 9 Hyde Park Mansions, Hyde Park, London. He exhibited in 1883-94, including at the Royal Academy (5), Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour (8), Fine Art Society (4), Dowdeswell Galleries (91), and the Dudley Gallery and New Dudley Gallery (41). He taught watercolour painting to the daughters of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII).

The Subject

The High Cross, College Green, Bristol – with the Cathedral in the distance. The original High Cross in Bristol was carved in 1373 and placed in College Green in 1733. It was removed by Henry Hoare II in 1768 to Stourhead Park in Wiltshire (now National Trust), where it still stands in the gardens laid out to his designs. A replacement High Cross, in a similar style to the medieval one, was erected at the eastern end of College Green in 1851. The design was by the Bristol-born architect John Norton (1823-1904), perhaps best-known as the architect of Tyntesfield in North Somerset (also National Trust). The Cross was made of limestone ashlar, and the carving was done by Harry Hems of Exeter.