Hercules Brabazon Brabazon

In the present drawing, an architectural ruin monumentally fills the composition, which is set in the Roman Campagna. Following his graduation with honors in the Mathematical Tripos from Trinity College, Cambridge, Brabazon rejected reading law at the Inns of Court in favor of becoming an artist. He subsequently spent three years in Rome training and it is possible that the present sheet dates to that time. The drawing is signed with Brabazon's conventional inscription, "H.B.B." Sir Frederick Wedmore summarized Brabazon's career as an aristocratic and amateur artist by quipping that Brabazon was "a country gentleman who at seventy years old made his debut as a professional artist and straightway became famous."