Sir George Pocock Bart

Linnell enjoyed an academic education in portrait and landscape painting at the age of thirteen. He had his first success as a portraitist and later devoted himself to landscape painting in the style of English Impressionism. In this miniature the artist connected both painting types by placing his sitter on a veranda with view of an autumnal landscape. His evident skill in the watercolour technique gives vividness and naturalness to the picture, as does the meticulous drawing. The sitter is George Pocock Bart of Twickenham; he and his family were portrayed by Linnell between 1826 and 1832.¹ In 1827 the Bristol-born teacher published a book on the navigation of coaches pulled by kites.² Pocock had developed a light coach pulled by several kites which could transport four or five people over 160 kilometres through the country with a speed of more than 30 kilometres perhour. He had his invention patented.

D. O.