Sebastian Pether

Sebastian Pether (24 November 1793 – 14 March 1844)[lower-alpha 1] was an English landscape-painter who specialised in painting moonlight, sunset, and firelight. His father Abraham Pether and brother Henry Pether also specialised in moonlit paintings, the three were known as the "Moonlight Pethers".[5][6] Sebastian's work tended to have greenish tones.[7] The bulk of his work was managed through art dealers who helped him sell his paintings, but resulted in little income to support his large family of eleven. Pether died at the age of 51, leaving his family reliant on subscriptions raised after his death.

River Scene (1840) by Sebastian Pether

Life

Sebastian William Thomas Pether was born on 24 November 1793 to Abraham and Elizabeth Pether and he was baptised at Saint Luke's Church in Chelsea, London on 31 August 1794.[4][8] The eldest son, he was a pupil of his father, and followed him in subject matter, but led a beleaguered life. Pether married young and had a large family of nine children, and had few opportunities to create commissioned works and his works were not often exhibited, forcing him to work for dealers at low wages.[3][9] He was well-educated, and even claimed to have first proposed the idea of a stomach-pump to the surgeon Andrew Jukes.[3][9] During the last years of his life he lost three children to consumption and after his death another to lockjaw; his eldest son William became a mosaic artist.[9] Pether died at Battersea of an inflammatory attack on 14 March 1844 at York Cottage, Battersea Fields, and a subscription was raised for his family.[3][9][lower-alpha 2] Charity was raised for his surviving daughter in a November 1876 issue of the London Times, who was said to be destitute after ruining her eyesight working as a needlewoman.[10]

Works

Pether's main works consisted in firelights, moonlights and sunsets.[9] In 1814 Pether sent to the Royal Academy View from Chelsea Bridge of the Destruction of Drury Lane Theatre, and in 1826 A Caravan overtaken by a Whirlwind, a commission from John Fleming Leicester, who was his only patron.[3][9] In the spring of 1842, three pictures which, with the help of a frame-maker, he sent to the Royal Academy, were rejected.[3] Sebastian Pether's paintings are frequently incorrectly attributed to his brother Henry Pether and vice versa. However, Henry generally signed his paintings and they were more realistic and refined.[11]

  • A River Landscape with a Castle at Sunrise
  • A Ruined Gothic Church beside a River by Moonlight
  • Moonlit Landscape with a Gothic Ruin
  • The Bay of Naples

See also

Notes
  1. Pether's birth is often stated to have taken place in the year of 1790,[1][2][3] but public birth and christening records show he was born on 24 November 1793.[4]
  2. Urban states that Pether died on 18 March 1844,[9] perhaps this was his date of burial.

References
  1. "Sebastian Pether (1790-1844)". Christie's. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  2. "Sebastian Pether, 1790–1844, British, River Scene, 1840". Yale Collection of British Art. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  3.  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Pether, Sebastian". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 45. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  4. "Sebastian William Thomas Pether, birth 24 November 1793, baptism 31 August 1794", Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
  5. "Moonlight Pether". Evening Standard. 21 March 1970. p. 6. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  6. "Moonlight, Westminster by Henry Pether". National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  7. The Saturday book. London : Hutchinson. 1975. pp. 218–220. ISBN 978-0-09-124650-1.
  8. "Sebastian William Thomas Pether, baptism 31 August 1794", London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials
  9. Urban, Sylvanus, ed. (1844). "Obituary: Sebastian Pether". The Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. XXII. London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son. p. 99.
  10. Murdoch, Lydia (16 February 2006). Imagined Orphans: Poor Families, Child Welfare, and Contested Citizenship in London. Rutgers University Press. p. 105. ISBN 9780813541020.
  11. Maas, Jeremy (1988). Victorian painters. London : Barrie & Jenkins. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7126-2121-2.
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