Myles Birket Foster, R.W.S. 1825-1899

Birket Foster’s pastoral images were vastly popular among the contemporary art collecting public who lived and worked in the growing cities but who had fond memories of the countryside in which they had been raised as children. Foster was one of the few watercolourists of the age to become rich from his art. Leading dealers of the period, notably L. and W. Vokins, and Messrs Tooth, competed avidly for Birket Foster’s latest productions. Birket Foster built a splendid house for himself, called The Hill, at Witley in Surrey, to which he frequently invited other painters and in where he assembled a remarkable collection of contemporary paintings and works of art. The house was decorated by Morris, Marshall & Faulkner. His most notable commission was to Edward Burne-Jones, who in 1865 was asked to paint seven large canvases giving the story of Saint George and his rescue of the Princess Sabra to furnish the dining room of the house. These were completed with the assistance of Charles Fairfax Murray in 1867, and remained in Birket Foster’s house until shortly before his death. In addition, he had on his walls at The Hill works by James Linnell, James Holland and J. F. Lewis. Among the watercolourists represented were Fred Walker, George John Pinwell, Samuel Palmer and William Henry Hunt. Perhaps his most prized possession was a series of eight watercolours – all views on the Continent – by Turner.

At a time when the traditional seasonal festivities in the countryside were tending to fade away – discouraged by landed proprietors and undermined by an exodus of population into the expanding cities, Christmas remained the paramount holiday and opportunity for jollities and conviviality for country people. Birket Foster’s watercolour shows the children of the parish collecting branches of holly from the hedgerows, with which to decorate their homes.