Watercolour depicting Highcliffe Castle, Dorset (then High Cliff, Hampshire), as seen from the East. Painted by Adam Callander after an oil painting by Charles Steuart (fl.1765-90), though the Callander watercolour appears to be a reversed copy of Steuart's painting, High Cliff from the South-West [Private Collection]. British, Signed and dated 1783. This view is plate 65 in W. Watts Seats of the Nobility (1779).

A building on a cliff top to the right side of the picture, with the sea to the left, under an expanse of sky.

This is one of four watercolours by Adam Callander (worked 1780-1811) acquired by the museum in 1953 (museum numbers : P.39, 40, 41, 42-1953). All four works were catalogued at the time as views of ‘Highcliffe, near Christchurch, Hampshire, the seat of the Marquess of Bute’; today this building is known as Highcliffe Castle, and is now in Dorset. A written communication from Michael Hill, FSA, architectural historian, has confirmed however that while two of the works show Highcliffe (P.39-1953 and P.40-1953), the other two works show Luton Park, also called Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire (P.41-1953 and P.42-1953).

Both properties belonged to John Stuart (1713-92), 3rd Earl of Bute. Three of the watercolours by Adam Callander (P.39, 41, 42–1953) are in fact copies of oil paintings by Charles Steuart (worked 1765-90), commissioned by Bute of these two houses. The fourth watercolour (P.40-1953) is likely also to be a copy of a now untraced oil by Steuart. The oil paintings of the two views of Luton Park (Luton Hoo) are in the Mount Stuart collection, (ref. Frances Russell, 2004, plates 69 and 70). The original oil by Steuart of P.39-1953 is in a private collection (ref. Francis Russell, 2004, plate 77).

Further reference should be made to Francis Russell, John, 3rd Earl of Bute: Patron & Collector, Merrion Press, 2004. See also forthcoming, Michael Hill, East Dorset Country Houses, Spire Books, (Autumn) 2013.

P.39-1953