Hercules Brabazon Brabazon (born Hercules Sharpe, 1821-1906) was the youngest son of an Irish aristocratic family with estates in Ireland and Britain. Trained at Cambridge University, HBB inherited wealth, lands and titles upon the death of his older brother (in 1847) and father (in 1858). He spent the remainder of his life summering on the Riviera, with occasional trips to North Africa, the Middle East, and India. As a wealthy amateur musician and painter, he knew Franz Liszt and J.S. Sargent. An early member of the New English Art Club, he held his first one-man exhibition in 1892 at the age of 71. In the words of Sir Frederick Wedmore, he was "a country gentleman, who at seventy years old made his debut as a professional artist, and straightaway became famous."

Brabazon combines the atmospheric effects of J.M.W. Turner with the deliciously suggestive brush and color sense of Richard Parkes Bonington. Eritrea (c.1874, 18x20cm) shows more of the Bonington influence in its delicate sky and deftly abbreviated figures. Using a buff tinted paper to soften the light and establish the basic tonality of the image, Brabazon can treat most of the large areas — the sky, walls and water — as negative space, and simply paint areas of highlight (using chinese white or gouache), shadow, or vivid local color. His color accents follow the traditional emphasis on blues and reds, subdued slightly so that they can be used in larger areas. This painting is worth careful study to appreciate the suggestiveness and poetic aptness of Brabazon's technique. The figures are never more than two or three adjacent blobs, but this is unmistakably a human crowd with brisk business to conclude along the waterfront market. The shadows along the top of the right wall and the tower at center reveal the effortless and understated accuracy of his technique. Nothing is ever labored or "finished" in Brabazon: he usually completed a painting in about an hour, often in less time than that, utilizing the impressionistic resources of watercolor to catch the image in a heartbeat of light.

Brabazon's life in retirement — wandering the spas and resorts of the Mediterranean, playing piano with the likes of Franz Liszt, relaxing at his grand estates — was nicely caricatured in "thoughts from HBB" written by a friend in 1879: I live in London at times — then comes a dull day — murky — I shudder, I seize a carpet bag — I pack in it a paintbox, a sketching block, a dozen of chinese white — a shirt, a pocket handkerchief — a Beethoven a Brahms and a Chopin — I stuff them into the bag — I rush downstairs into a hansom — "Where to Sir?" "To Egypt" — he understands and drives me straight to Charing Cross" [London's international train station]. One of Brabazon's favorite stops on these tours (where one hopes he shopped for a change of linen) was Venice, a location he painted often and somtimes in the company of J.S. Sargent. Venice (c.1891, 20x26cm) provides a useful comparison to the same scene painted by J.M.W. Turner, whose works (the "color studies" in particular) Brabazon carefully studied at the British Museum and deeply admired throughout his life. Unlike a Turner painting, where the Italian light is often direct and intense, Brabazon shows the waters of Venice under golden billows of late afternoon clouds, sunlight pouring out of them like cream from a Venetian silver service. Brabazon uses white gouache very sparingly to suggest the campanile opening, the promenade gaslights and their reflections in the water, these touches linking the city silhouette to the sky and making the dark greenish waters appear richer. The gondonla is dispatched in four brushstrokes exactly, highlighting the extreme brevity in which the whole is accomplished. Brabazon's paintings often give the impression of Chinese sumi paintings — done with rapid, unedited touches of the brush.