News » Godalming Museum has acquired a watercolour of Myles Birket Foster's house, The Hill.
 Godalming Museum has acquired a watercolour of Myles Birket Foster's house, The Hill. October 10, 2011 | |
Godalming Museum has acquired a watercolour of Myles Birket Foster's house, The Hill. The painting has been acquired by Godalming Museum with financial backing from the National Art Collections fund, The Hamamelis Trust and generous private donors. Witley Parish Council made a small donation. Birket Foster was a popular English illustrator, watercolour artist and engraver in the Victorian period. He moved to Witley in 1863 and designed his new house 'The Hill', himself. He and his family lived there until 1893. It was after moving to Witley that Birket Foster produced the works for which he is best known - a sentimentalised view of the contemporary English countryside, particularly in the west Surrey area. Birket Foster's work (along with that of other artists) was used by Cadburys, the chocolate manufacturer, on the cover of their chocolate boxes from the 1860s onwards. Birket Foster died in 1899 and is buried in Witley Churchyard. The painting can now be seen in the Gertrude Jekyll room at the museum.
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