This watercolour view of the west front of Lichfield Cathedral was generously donated to the Museum earlier this year. In this week’s blog post we find out more about the artist, Birmingham-born Paul Braddon, and his pieces in the Birthplace collections.
The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum holds a collection of eleven works by Paul Braddon, including this new piece. Most are views of Lichfield, some partly imagined, but Braddon’s interest in the city seems not to have been purely topographical, as he also made watercolours of events from Samuel Johnson’s life. The paintings include a wonderful record of the Johnson family parlour, giving us an invaluable sense of our building before the hallway wall was removed in the early 20th century. Another piece recalls the incident of the Cock Lane Ghost, showing the site of even
ts which caused great intrigue in London in the 1760s, but which Johnson was involved in uncovering as a hoax. Other views show Johnson’s school at Edial hall, Lichfield Marketplace imagined in the 1790s, and the house in which the Dictionary was created at 17 Gough Square, London. Although largely undated, they are documented as dating to the 1890s, and the majority were donated to the Museum by Lichfield historian Alfred D Parker.
Paul Braddon as born James Leslie Crees in July 1864 at Ledsam Street in Ladywood, Birmingham and died in 1938 in Croydon. The Crees family came from France after the French Revolution: James’s father William Henry Crees was born in Brighton and moved to Birmingham as a young man, where he married Catherine Matilda Dewson, who was the daughter of a stationer who lived on New Street. Braddon was initially intended for a career in the church and his earliest works concentrate on churches and cathedrals, which he travelled to Europe to paint. He later focused on local views, and was a prolific painter.
Braddon’s literary interests were not confined to Johnson, as he made a number of views related to authors. These include: a view of the Bronte Parsonage at Haworth which is now in the Bronte Parsonage Collection; George Elliot’s haunts in Nuneaton which are in Birmingham Library; street views of Statford which can be seen in the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust archive and the Victoria and Albert Museum have a view of the Birthplace of Charles Lamb
The Johnson Birthplace views are therefore not only striking visual material, but add to our understanding of how Johnson was memoralised 100 years after his death, and of literary tourism in the late 19th century.
‘The West front of Lichfield Cathedral’ was donated in memory of Michael John Pope (1943-2019), who was born in Lichfield, and it can be seen on display on the first floor of the Birthplace. The majority of the Braddon pieces are on regular display, or search our collection to find out more.