Water Colour Gallery

Krakatoa sunsets, 1883 artworks

Krakatoa sunsets. Artwork of the spectacular red and orange sunsets caused in London, England, by the August 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, a volcano thousands of kilometres away in Indonesia. The ash thrown up by the eruption caused sunsets like these for years afterwards. These three artworks are a sequence, showing twilight and afterglow effects at Chelsea, London, on 26 November 1883, at around: 4.40pm (top); 5pm (middle); and 6.15pm (bottom). These are among the thousands of sunset sketches made by the British artist William Ashcroft. Krakatoa's eruption prompted many reports and investigations. These artworks formed the frontispiece for The Report of the Krakatoa Committee of the Royal Society (1888)

© ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Wisteria

Watercolour on board of a scene in the gardens at Dyffryn House, South Wales by Edith Helena Adie. Adie was born in London and studied at the Slade School of Art and the Royal Academy. She was a member of the New Watercolour Society specialising in landscapes and garden views. Adie also lived and painted in Bordighera, Italy. Her paintings of the gardens at Dyffryn House designed by Thomas Mawson in 1906, were commissioned by the owner Reginald Cory (1871-1934) a passionate gardener and benefactor to horticultural causes. This painting is dated as finished 30th May 1923

Stewartia malecodendron

Watercolour on vellum by James Bolton annotated as Common Stuartia, native of Carolina and Virginia'. Bolton was born in West Yorkshire, England and was the son of a weaver. He was a self- taught botanist, artist and engraver. His brother Thomas Bolton (1722-1778) was also a naturalist. James Bolton was highly successful as a mycologist and author of several botanical books including the first British book on fungi. James and Thomas Bolton were both sponsored by the art and natural history collector Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (1715-1785). Painting date c.1790s