This article was originally published in the August 2005 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society

Norman Rogers-Jones found a framed watercolour of a landscape, signed by Mary Ann Sewell and dated 1875. Norman has no connection with the Sewell name but has a love of the lakes and mountains and found the painting in a car boot sale in Penrith Market in the summer of 2004. The painting measures 8x11inches and Norman believes it was painted from near Stonethwaite Fell from Stockley Bridge, in the Lake District. He says that it is an accurate portrayal of the Lake District area.

Norman would like to know more about the artist but we have so far been unable to identify her. It was quite common for Victorian ladies from prosperous families to learn to paint. Eric Sewell our Cumbria co-ordinator looked in the 1881 census, and found several Mary Ann Sewell’s but none who were likely to have been artists. It seems more probable that Mary Ann was a visitor to the Lakes and maybe gave her painting to a local.

If you know of an ancestor who was a painter and can identify Mary Ann Sewell for Norman, please get in touch with me and I will pass on the details to Norman.