A charming painting of grey Persian kittens by Agnes Augusta Talboys. One of the kittens has climbed into a basket whilst another perches on the lid as the others sit by. A fifth kitten plays with the thread of a blanket.

Agnes Augusta Talboys was born Agnes Augusta Snell on 5 April, 1866 in Bristol. Her parents were Russell Abraham Snell, a customs officer and Agnes Snell (née Bullock) who were both members of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Portland Street. The family lived at Freemantle Square in the Kingsdown area of Bristol and later Apsley Villa in Wellington Park, Redland.

After the death of her father in 1871, her mother took her to live with her aunt Eliza at her house in St Michael's Hill where she resided with 2 other aunts. Although little is known about her early education, her spinster aunts were listed as property owners and it is highly likely they supported her in her artistic development.

She married George Harmer Talboys on 17 Jun, 1889 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Bristol and by 1901 the couple had moved to Brookfield House, Gerard Road in Weston-Super-Mare. At some point she started specialising in paintings of animals, particularly cats in the tradition of Alfred Arthur Brunel de Neuville and Henriette Ronner-Knip. From around 1907, her career as an artist began to take off and she started exhibiting at the Bristol Fine Arts Academy, which became the Royal West of England Academy in 1913. Although it is unclear whether or not she separated from her husband, by the end of the decade she had returned to Bristol on her own to live with her aunts at 20 Southfield Road, Cotham. She kept a studio at Cotham and from there exhibited at the Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham and continued exhibiting at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol where she became an early associate of the organisation.

She was known to keep Persian cats who she used as models for her paintings. One of her favourites was called Peter who was made famous when a painting of him was reproduced as a calendar during the late 1920’s. Talboys later inherited the house at Southfield Road and remained there for the rest of her life. In addition to being an artist she was also a skilled chess player and was a member of the Bristol Chess Club, playing at county level. She died on 26 August, 1941 at a nursing home in Weston-Super-Mare. She never lost her enthusiasm for the RWA and left a large bequest to the Academy in her will which enabled them to purchase a significant amount of paintings for their permanent collection. Examples of her work are held by Bristol Museum, North Somerset Council, Swindon Museum and Royal West of England Academy (RWA).