Branwell Bronte | Pencil sketch of T. Purser, 1840

Patrick Branwell Brontë

Pencil sketch of T. Purser

half-length, dressed formally in jacket, waistcoat, shirt, and cravat, inscribed in another hand ("T. Purser. Sketched by Patrick Bramwell [sic] Brontë in Manchester 1840"), 213 x 130mm, mounted on card

A PORTRAIT BY BRANWELL BRONTE. The identity of "T. Purser" is unknown, but Branwell is known to have visited Manchester in July-August 1840 to be interviewed for a job with the Manchester-Leeds Railway Company. He had by this time abandoned his efforts to make a living as an artist and was accepted for a position as a clerk at Sowerby Bridge station, where he worked until he was dismissed in 1842. This sketch is one of a group of pencil portraits from life undertaken by Branwell during the period he worked for the railways.

LITERATURE:

Alexander and Sellars, The Art of the Brontës, no. 268