A charming painting of a woman and her children gathering blackberries on the slope of a hill by Jane Bowkett. On the left of the painting a woman can be seen reaching up to pick the berries from an overhanging branch as a young girl holds a basket up for her. Meanwhile, another girl is shown helping a young boy up onto a large flat stone at the bottom of a path, whilst a third girl in a straw hat picks fruit on the side of the hill.

Jane Maria Bowkett was a figure and genre painter born in Poplar, London on 17 September, 1837, the eldest child of Thomas Edward Bowkett and Jane Bowkett (nče Watkinson). The family lived at East India Road where he father practiced as a surgeon, later becoming a doctor and was involved in the Chartist movement. Three of her sisters, Eliza Martha Bowkett (1839-1867), Jessie Undine Bowkett (1861-1886) and Leila Matilda Bowkett (1853-1924) also became artists.

She attended the Government School of Design (now Royal College of Art) and in 1858 began her exhibiting career at the Society of Female Artist. In 1860, she started exhibiting at the British Institution and a year later made her debut at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of British Artists. As well as exhibiting in London, she also exhibited more widely at the Birmingham Society of Artists, Royal Scottish Academy, Bristol Academy of Art and the Brighton Art Society. Most of her paintings were genre scenes featuring woman and children in a mixture of both interior and landscape settings. Her work also included a number of beach and coastal paintings.

She married the still life and landscape artist Charles Stuart on 7 February, 1862 at All Saints Church in West Ham. Although married, she continued exhibiting under her maiden name. The couple spent the first years of their married life living in Stepney Causeway where they started a family. One of their sons Charles Edward Gordon Stuart also became an artist. From 1867 she lived in Gravesend, Kent with her husband’s family but by 1880 had moved back to London where she lived at 18 Melbury Road, Kensington. Having both achieved success, they were able to purchase a new house, ‘Hermitage’ in West Hampstead in 1884, which had a large studio.

She remained at Hermitage until her death on 1 June, 1891 and was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery. Examples of her paintings are held by Aberdeen Art Gallery and Barrow-in-Furness Town Hall.

© Benton Fine Art