Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, UK.

Little is known about the life and work of Henry Barnabus Bright. Clearly an eccentric, concerned with the politics and social issues of the day, he is recorded as living in Kennington in the early 1870s and exhibited once at The Royal Academy, where he showed The Batrachomyomachia: The Battle between the Frogs and the Mice (RA 1871, no. 792). That work was one of three watercolours offered at Christie's, London, 12 June 1992, lots 88-90, and is thought to be one of a series of satirical commentaries on the Franco-Prussian war. His works rarely appear at auction, although two excellent examples were sold in these rooms, The Suitor and A Royal visit to the Hornbills (22 January, 2014, lots 77 and 78 respectively).

Bright is often confused with not only the Norwich School painter Henry Bright (1814-1873), but also with his own son who was also called Henry Bright (1847-1896) and also specialised in pictures of birds. Indeed, Graves' compendium of Royal Academy exhibits combines the work of all three artists under one listing.

Monkey Island lies in the Thames, between Bray and Dorney. Occupied since the 12th Century, there was a small abbey on the island know as Monks Eyot, which may explain its unusual name. Purchased by the Duke of Marlborough in 1738, the island became a popular destination for tourists. The Palladian architect Robert Morris designed two buildings for the island, the Pavilion and the Temple. Both still stand, the Pavilion being turned into a riverside inn in the 1840s, becoming known as the Monkey Hall Hotel.

In the present lot, Bright has captured one of these iconic Palladian buildings; also visible is the hotel sign in the tree, which reads 'Monkey Island Hotel/Bob Plummer', presumably a reference to the husband of Mrs Plummer, who served as the landlady of the hotel in the 19th Century.