The story of an important and overlooked Lichfield Victorian, the Reverend John Louis Petit, is to be told in a new book due out on March 4th, thanks to important material held at the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum.
The Reverend Petit (1801-68) was a famous artist and architectural writer in his day. He steadfastly opposed the fashion for neo-Gothic for restoring and building churches, in numerous books, articles and speeches – often in the face of vitriolic and unfair criticism. On top of that, he was a brilliant artist. Yet his art was never sold and remained hidden for 150 years before being dumped in regional auctions in the 1990s mixed up with works by his sisters.
It has now been possible to disentangle the differing artists thanks to an original Petit family album of watercolours held in the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum and believed to be the only one still intact.
The new book, Petit’s Tours of Old Staffordshire, presents 175 of Petit’s watercolours from across Staffordshire and takes the reader on tours to see the spot where these were drawn and look at how the building; often a church but sometimes a windmill, factory, or landscape, has changed.
The watercolours, which have never been shown together before, provide a backdrop to the book, which also introduces Petit’s writings and battles, the forgotten beauty of 19th century Staffordshire, and how Petit came to be written out of history.
While there are lovely tours from Dovedale to Wolverhampton, the highlight for Lichfielders is a walking tour of Lichfield accompanied by 17 extraordinary, evocative watercolours of the cathedral from every angle. These include images of two pictures hanging in the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum.
The tour suggests a visit to the museum (of course!) and also passes by the site of Redcourt, Samuel Johnson’s step-daughter’s house; where Petit lived for much of his life, as well as taking in the Cathedral Close, St Michaels and other beautiful spots where Petit painted.
Author Philip Modiano, acknowledging the role of Samuel Johnson Birthplace in his research for the book says: “The big breakthrough came from the album in the Samuel Johnson. For the first time, I could prove that weaker art attributed to Petit was not by him at all, that he is a great artist, as well as the first serious advocate of preservation. A man that Lichfield can be very proud of.”
Philip wrote the first scholarly article on Petit’s painting, which appeared in the British Art Journal in 2017, but says this book is for everyone: “To quote the back of the book: for everyone already interested in our heritage and for those who want an easy and fun way to understand more.”
Petit’s Tours of Old Staffordshire is published on 04 March 2019 and is available from the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum bookshop, as well as other locations across Staffordshire for £14.-00. The book is also available online at www.ypdbooks.com for £14.00 + p&p.
We are delighted to have been able to assist Philip in his research into Reverend Petit and welcome visits from other researchers wishing to use the collection. For more information on visiting us for research, please see our website.