Thomas Hearne (Brinkworth, Malmesbury 1744-1817 London)

A watercolour by Hearne in Leeds City Art Gallery is entitled Lymington, unloading a Timber Ship; an etching by him A Brick Hovel near Lymington, Hampshire, was published in 1809. There is also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, a work entitled The Isle of Wight from Lymington, dated 1793. The Leeds picture shows a view looking out from Lymington across the Solent towards the Isle of Wight; the present view is in the opposite direction, looking inland into Hampshire. Hearne visited the region around 1790 in order to make drawings for the Antiquities of Great Britain. The present watercolour is almost exactly the same size as the Leeds picture, and may be its companion-piece. It is not known which, if any, of these watercolours is the View near Lymington exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793.