Benjamin John Ottewell (1847 – 1937) watercolourist - Queen Victoria and Upper Deeside

Introduction

Benjamin Ottewell, or “Uncle Ben” as he seems to have been almost universally known, was a prominent landscape painter in watercolours in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  After an apparently chance encounter with Queen Victoria on the Balmoral estate in 1894, he caught her interest in his art and estimated he sold “upwards of 130 drawings” to the Monarch over many years.  But Ottewell’s reputation does not today enjoy high status in the art world.  When his pictures are offered for sale at auction, they generally command prices in the region of £200 - £400, small beer even in the national art market.  It has to be said that Ottewell’s claim to fame was influenced by his association with the Queen.  But among those who know the striking scenery of Upper Deeside, Aberdeenshire, there is an acknowledgement that Ottewell skilfully caught the essence of this landscape, which juxtaposes mountains holding snow for more than six months of the year, rushing rivers and forests of majestic Scots pines, with a scattering of birch trees.  Queen Victoria was deeply attached to this land and its people, so it should not be surprising that she patronised Benjamin Ottewell so extensively.

But what of the man himself?  What drove him to become an artist and to work so frequently in Scotland, despite being born close to London?  What kind of personality did he possess and what moved him in life?  Benjamin Ottewell wrote an autobiography anonymously, which must be a very rare occurrence.  “Some Trivial Recollections of an Old Landscape Painter” was published in 1913 but, because he deliberately set out to obscure dates, places and the identities of the people in his life, the answers to many of the questions that the curious might pose, are not found, at least directly, between its covers.  The book does not provide the fine grain description of his life that the enquirer seeks.  Indeed, it confirms that the man was an enigma and intended to remain so.

While he was painting on Queen Victoria’s Balmoral estate, Benjamin Ottewell encountered John Michie, then the head forester (1880 – 1902) but later the factor (1902 – 1919) on the Deeside Royal holdings.  Ottewell was clearly very personable, humorous and a good conversationalist.  He became a regular visitor and guest in the Michie household.  John Michie kept a diary, which detailed the developing friendship between the two men and the role that Michie played in bringing Ottewell’s works to the notice of Queen Victoria. 

In “An annotated Bibliography of British Autobiographies”, William Matthews, the author, described Ottewell’s literary efforts as “Notes on art and painters; public events in England and Scotland; superficial (this author’s emphasis) and genial jottings.”  But that is hardly an informed view.  This biographical work is not superficial but obscure and cryptic.  It can only be seen as trivial by the uninformed.  With persistence in mapping other, dated and attributed, sources to the biography, much can be uncovered concerning Ottewell the man and the events, some dramatic, to which he was party.  This is the story of Benjamin John Ottewell’s life.

The Ottewell family

Benjamin Ottewell was the son of William Ottewell, who was born in 1798 at Hadleigh in Suffolk.  Ottewell senior was married twice and with each wife he produced a large family.  His first wife, Elizabeth Radcliffe, also originated in Hadleigh and bore her husband at least nine children between 1821 and 1839, the first six of whom also saw the light of day for the first time in Hadleigh.  Before August 1836, the family had moved to the Camberwell – Peckham area, now in suburban South London, where Elizabeth died in August 1840.  Less than a year later, in February 1841, William Ottewell married again, this time to Ann Pope, whose family hailed from Deptford in Kent.  All eight, known offspring of this second marriage were born in Streatham, about three miles south west of Camberwell and Peckham.  One of the two Ottewell clutches must have had a child that was born and died between censuses and was thus not recorded in these decadal population records, the two families containing 18 children in total.  At the 1841 Census, William was described as a servant and his wife as a dressmaker.  A decade later, William Ottewell was recorded as a gentleman’s coachman, still living in Streatham, where he may have been a servant for a wealthy builder in Leigham Lane.

Benjamin John Ottewell was the fifth child of his father’s second marriage and Ben was born on 11 September 1847.  Curiously, he was not baptised until 28 May 1855, at St Leonard’s church, Streatham (Church of England), when he was in his eighth year.  Even more curious was the fact that the Ottewells held a mass baptism on that date for five of their children, the oldest of which, Edward George, was 12!

William and Ann Ottewell

Early development - a curious mind

Ben Ottewell’s childhood was described in general terms in his autobiography, though with dates, names and places usually being omitted.  He wrote, “My boyhood passed delightfully in the southern shire (Surrey) in which I was born.”  However, early on, his musing about his name and birth date led him to conclude some “facts” which predicted his destiny.  His birth date – in numbers – was 11/9/1847 and his full name was Benjamin John Ottewell, which contained precisely 20 letters.  Benjamin “discovered” a series of links between the two, 11+9 (date and month of birth)=20 (total letters in name), 1+8 (first two digits of year of birth)=9 (month of birth), 4+7 (second two digits of year of birth)=11 (date of birth) and 1+8+4+7 (digits of year of birth)=20 (total letter in name).  The fertile mind of the young Ben concluded from these associations, by some quirk of youthful logic, that he must be destined for fame and that, if this outcome was fixed, he did not need to work!  He certainly thought that he was “lucky” from the occurrence of a series of beneficial events later in his life.   Ben recorded that he was successful at shirking school, at devoting his time to following the hounds on foot and at doing “a little poaching”.  His childhood development was also hampered by a serious illness, though the nature of the condition and the year that it struck are not known.  He was clearly highly intelligent but wayward, lazy and of an independent bent.  It was only at the age of 10, in 1857, that he learned the alphabet and acquiring the skills of reading and writing.  He also came to understand musical notation at this time. These achievements were only gained due to the goading of his younger sisters, who had overtaken him in academic status.  By his own admission, he did not display precocious talent.

Another unusual aspect of Benjamin Ottewell’s early life was the frequency with which he discovered human corpses during his peregrinations.  These deaths, at least four, were mostly the result of suicide.  “I found ‘em in the water, by the side of the road, in a brewery yard, and in a hollow tree.  Young and old of both sexes hanged and drowned and shot.”  These experiences, which many young people would have found emotionally upsetting, did not seem to perturb Benjamin, especially since he was paid half a crown expenses (about £12.50 in 2018 money) for appearing as a witness at inquests!

William Ottewell, Benjamin’s father, had a relaxed attitude to life, which must have contributed to young Ben’s lack of academic progress.  Benjamin described his father as being “an easy-going old soul with scant sympathy for modern educational crazes.”  “He rode straight, shot straight, loved strong ale and one good cigar after dinner.”  However, the family must have shown some concern for Ben’s lack of scholastic merit for, about the age of 12 (1859) he was sent to a grammar school, “a few miles distant”.  It is not clear if the family was still resident in Streatham but, by the 1861 Census day (7 April), they were living at Thorney House, Iver, Buckinghamshire, where William had apparently obtained a new position, though still as a coachman.

Formal and informal education

Benjamin’s move to grammar school was a disaster.  The headmaster had been warned in advance of his lack of educational achievement and the standard approach to backward pupils awaited Ben’s arrival.  In those days scholars who failed to learn quickly were brutalised, both physically and emotionally and this approach was immediately applied to the new attendee.  On the first day, he was required to read a sentence out loud to the class and made a mess of the pronunciation, which caused his classmates to laugh.  His teacher persevered by making him repeat the exercise, finally forcing Ben to declaim standing on a form.  His mistakes were rewarded by his teacher boxing him around the ears.  A defiant and angry Benjamin responded by punching the teacher on the nose.  This rebellion against authority had its inevitable consequence.  Ben was beaten with a cane by the headmaster and sent to solitary confinement, without tea or supper.  The rebel ran away during the following night, found his way home and never went back to the school.  During the early 1860s there was little advance in Benjamin Ottewell’s formal education.  However, about the age of 17 (1864 – 1865) he was sent for a year to a Non-Conformist College for Schoolmasters, whose principal was a Dr Talbot.  Benjamin was by that time reading novels and “anything he could get his hands on”.   He was also good at poaching and enjoyed playing practical jokes. 

Sport and music

In the sporting arena, Benjamin had become a skilful cricketer, describing himself as a “slogger and a fast bowler”.  He particularly enjoyed the sociable aspects of the game, with competing teams dining with each other after a match, smoking cigars or pipes and having a good sing-song.  By 1869 Ottewell’s cricketing skills were good enough for him to be selected for the Surrey Colts and on the 13 and 14 September he played for East Surrey against West Surrey.  Ben was a sporting all-rounder, participating in golf, football, cricket and tennis, in addition to wielding the willow.  His approach to life at this time appeared to be focussed on having fun and not on gaining formal qualifications, which might have been beneficial for routine employment.  Another activity which gave him joy was taking part in glees, madrigals and part-songs, which he looked upon as healthy exercise.  Later, possibly after his illness, he also took up billiards and betting on horse races, “… anything in fact that wasn’t considered respectable in our Nonconformist household”!

Employment and cricket

About 1866, Benjamin Ottewell was obliged to seek employment and “drifted” into the Civil Service, ruining his chances of doing the job he most wanted, which was to play cricket professionally.  Ben was not impressed by his new employment situation.  “Here followed the most tiresome and unsatisfactory years of my life!  Seven long years (to about 1873) of playing at work in an over-manned, over-paid office where the most strenuous job of the year was getting up the Derby “Sweep”.” 

By late 1869 Benjamin’s father, William, appeared to have retired and the family had moved to live in Wimbledon.  In April 1871 William Ottewell, of no stated occupation, was living at Montague House St Mary, Montague Road, Wimbledon with his wife Ann and four of his children. Benjamin, one of the children at home, was at this date in work as a temporary clerk in the Civil Service. William Ottewell died in September 1871 and at least two of his surviving offspring, Benjamin and Edward, then moved again, to Mentmore Villas, Griffiths Road, New Wimbledon. 

In the early 1870s Ben Ottewell played cricket for the Clarendon club, whose opponents included teams from Merton, Putney, Windsor and Eton, and Mitcham.  Benjamin was a competent batsman and bowler.  In 1872 he was the club’s deputy captain and at the 4^th annual dinner held in March 1873 at the White Hart Tavern, Merton, he received the President’s presentation bat for the highest aggregate score.  Ill-health then intervened to end his cricketing career.  The last newspaper report of his cricketing exploits was in August 1873.  Ben suffered a bad bout of rheumatic fever in what was also his last year as a clerk in the Civil Service.  Ottewell appears to have maintained his links with the cricketing community since in December 1888 he attended a smoking concert inaugurating the next season’s activities at the Clyde Cricket and Football Clubs, which was held at the Anchor restaurant, Cheapside.  There was a long programme of entertainment after dinner “including several songs given by Mr Ottewell”.  Although no longer an active cricketer, Benjamin would have been in his element at this event.

Entry into the world of art

With sport ruled out for the present, Benjamin sought an alternative diversion – painting.  “I bethought me of the painting and unearthed the old crayons and the colour box (presumably possessions he had had since childhood).  I read books on art, especially anatomy, Fau, Flaxman, Bonomi and the rest of ‘em and later on bought shilling books on painting, Aaron Penley, NE Green, and Barnard, besides Hill’s “Studies of Animals and Rustic Figures.”  I haunted a certain second-hand bookshop in Knightsbridge and bargained for prints and lithographs of cattle and sheep – principally by Sidney Cooper – and made large copies of them in black and white chalk on tinted paper.  Then came the hiring at 1a 6d a week of chromolithographs after Birket Foster to be copied in water colours and raffled for by fellows at the office at ten shillings a time!”  So, Ben’s conversion to artist, induced by rheumatic fever, must have occurred quite quickly, while he was still in Civil Service employment and at the rather late age of about 26.  But, like sporting activities involving hand-eye coordination, Benjamin Ottewell proved to be naturally talented as an artist.  “And this was the sum total of the instruction I received for the most arduous and uncertain of all the entertaining professions!”  According to his autobiography, Benjamin John Ottewell never attended Art School, even on a part-time basis.  However, according to an entry in Who’s Who (which was presumably publishing data supplied by Benjamin), he studied for seven years at the “Science and Art Department, South Kensington”.  This was a teaching establishment set up by the Government to promote education in art, science, technology and design.  Eventually, it evolved into the Royal College of Art, probably the capital’s most prestigious college of art and design today.  It is not clear if Benjamin Ottewell’s  attendance at the Science and Art Department was formal or informal, part time or full-time, but almost certainly not the latter.  This apparent inconsistency over his artistic education seems to be part of the ambiguity and obfuscation that Benjamin Ottewell cultivated.

At the time of his initiation into art, Benjamin was the only male left in the family home.  The pursuit of his new-found calling, partly fuelled by obsession and partly by the necessity of gaining an income, often led to penury as available money was spent on painting materials in preference to food.  “My time was all my own now and was spent in making sketches in water colours.”  His subjects were mostly landscapes and he enjoyed almost instant success.  “… I had sold my first four water colours for 10s each (about £53 in 2018 money) and so satisfied was the purchaser that he came next day and bought all I had – thirteen all told at a slightly increased rate of 12s 6d each (about £67 in 2018 money).  He had many more during the ensuing year and was the means of my getting some small commissions; indeed, within the year it was no uncommon thing to get four or five guineas (up to £590 in 2018 money) for a drawing.”  The earliest paintings identified as by Benjamin Ottewell date from 1879.

Health problems again intervened in the form of a further attack of rheumatic fever, “which kept me helpless for fourteen weeks and left me so weak that I was unable to make any sketches and studies to be worked up during the winter.”  Forced inactivity resulted in a debt of £80 (about £8500 in 2018 money) being accumulated. But debt coerced him into overcoming his natural disinclination to work.   As an alternative to developing outdoor sketches he turned to creating paintings of potted plants “all that winter and spring”.  “I hired pots of blooming plants and painted them, flowerpots and all and sold them, the last batch going to a dealer who gave me 30s each (about £160 in 2018 money) for them and a tip for the Derby!” Benjamin, being a horse racing devotee, probably laid money on the Classic entrant, which promptly lost.

At the 1881 Census, held on the night of 3^rd April, Anne Ottewell (widow of William Ottewell) was a 67-year-old lady living at 1 Martin's Villas, Wimbledon.  Several of her offspring were in the house with her, Hannah E Ottewell, Emily A Guile (now married) with her daughter Lilly E Guile, Ellen E Ottewell and Benjamin J Ottewell.  The three young women were all dressmakers.  Benjamin, now 34, was described as an Artist - Landscape painter.   Anne Ottewell died at Wimbledon in June 1884.

Art societies and exhibitions

 

In the years after first taking up painting, Benjamin Ottewell took part in many field trips into the countryside of Southern England, often in the company of fellow watercolourists.  However, his accounts of this time slot appear to be mixed up and do not follow a lineal sequence.  Early in the 1870s, while he was still playing cricket, he journeyed into his native Surrey (including Shalford and Godalming on the River Wey), parts of Kent (Rochester Castle) and Sussex.  He specifically mentioned Kitvale, on the Rother, Sussex, as one destination and Ecclesbourne Glen, Hastings as another.   Devon was a more distant location for his studies, again fairly early in his painting career.  Devonian locations included the environs of Exeter, with the towers of the cathedral visible in the distance, Budleigh Salterton, where he did many sketches from the cliff tops, the beach and in the Otter Valley, which resulted in him being chased by a bull.  Hampshire was a further county which Benjamin explored.  There his locations included “near” Laverstoke “where they make the paper for Bank of England notes”.  This would have been Laverstoke Mill in the Test Valley.  Also, the Itchen and Avon valleys.  Another painting site in this general area was Freefolk near Whitchurch.

Between leaving the Civil Service about 1873 and his success at the Royal Academy in 1884, Ottewell’s autobiography infuriatingly leaves no clues as to the timing of events during this 11-year period, which shaped his successful entry into the world of public art.  However, a period of seven years of study in South Kensington would fit into the interval comfortably.  Ottewell also claimed that he served on the staff of the British Commission to the Paris Exhibition of 1878, which is likely to have been as a result of contacts made at the Science and Art Department.

The Paris Exhibition of 1878 was an attempt by the French Third Republic to re-establish the standing of the country after the humiliation of defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 – 1871 and the subsequent deposition and exile of Napoleon III and his Empress, Eugenie.  The exhibition was mounted on a massive scale in Central Paris and showcased French arts and manufactures to an international audience, in addition to presenting contributions from many other nations, including Great Britain.  Prince Albert Edward, Queen Victoria’s eldest son was president of the Royal Commission controlling British participation in Paris, but it is unlikely that Ottewell became known to the Royal family at this time.

     

Ottewell claimed that he became a landscape artist in 1878 but this looks inaccurate, since he had been making and selling paintings, some of which were certainly landscapes, since at least 1873.  However, it is true that the earliest signed paintings which are known to have been on public display date from 1879.  Commercial success caused Benjamin Ottewell to think of entering his work in exhibitions mounted by the established artists’ societies and he was successful if having a “small watercolour” accepted at the Society of British Artists.  This was a work called “The Clunie near Braemar and shows that he had already started to travel to Scotland (see below) by 1884.  (The SBA, now RSBA, was established in 1823 as an alternative to the Royal Academy.)  However, seeing his work on public display engendered some self-doubt about the quality of his work.  Nevertheless, he pressed on but then had a submission rejected by the Royal Academy.  “Then the luck changed again and there came a time when I was hung at the RA (on the line too) the Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Grosvenor Gallery – all in the same year.  Sold them all too…”.  This year of growing acceptance in professional art circles was probably 1885.  Benjamin clearly entertained the notion that public recognition would bring higher prices in its wake but this expectation, sadly, proved to be wide of the mark.

In total, the following galleries are known to have exhibited the paintings of Benjamin John Ottewell.  The Grosvenor Gallery (three to 1900), the New Gallery (nine to 1900), the Royal Academy of Arts (four to 1900), the Royal Society of British Artists (one to 1900), the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (four to 1900) and the Walker Art Gallery.  More locally, he exhibited at the Wimbledon Art and Benevolent Society annual exhibition both in 1881 and in 1884.  One of his pictures “Russet Morn” was displayed at the Crystal Palace in 1885.  It was described in the press as having “commendable qualities”.  Once Benjamin Ottewell started travelling to Upper Deeside (see below) to paint, his pictures were displayed at events in Braemar on several occasions.  In 1891 he contributed “The Callater Burn in Spate” and “Evergreen Pine” to an exhibition in the Aberdeenshire village, along with other artists of sufficient status to have had works accepted by the Royal Academy.

Benjamin John Ottewell worked mostly in watercolours, a medium which lends itself to the speedy completion of a work and he was prolific.  It appears that only one limited attempt has been made to catalogue his total oeuvre.  Some works are owned by museums and galleries and six still reside in the Royal Collection, but many more pictures appear to be in private hands and have never been on public display.  Such artistic productivity would normally leave a trail of information which would allow the aspiring biographer to trace the artist’s movements in time and space.  But Ottewell frequently frustrates such efforts by recording the year of production of a work, but not its location, or giving a painting a title, which is without value in determining the location being portrayed.  Examples of this frustrating tendency are “Cattle by an Estuary”, “Pastoral” and “River Scene”, but there are many, many more!

In 1895 Ottewell was elected an honorary member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour.  This year corresponds precisely with the beginning of his association with Queen Victoria and it is to be wondered if the monarch was influential, either directly or indirectly in the granting of such official recognition.  Why was this an honorary membership (ie based upon established status) rather than a regular membership?  There were 54 such elections between 1893 and 1905, roughly four per year.  Of the 54 only three were honorary.  Ottewell was in very rare company!

Autobiography and character

The autobiography written by Benjamin Ottewell is very informative about his general character and interests.  Above all else, he was a pleasure-seeker and enjoyed life in all its aspects.  Perhaps his most guilty pass-time was smoking his pipe, because he admitted that he indulged in the weed too much.  He also enjoyed the company of others, yarning, especially over beer and smokes and it was his story-telling which led to the generation of “Some Trivial Recollections of an Old Landscape Painter”.  The book was published in 1913, so the events described must antecede that date.  Ottewell described the occasion which led to him undertaking the work.  “Written at the request of a lady to whom I had been spinning yarns in the lounge of a Scotch hotel a few years ago”.  He also added the information that the lady was his niece, six years his senior (implying a birth year of about 1841) and that her husband was a publisher.  She was the reason that he acquired the sobriquet “Uncle Ben”.  If this description is accurate, she must have been the child of one of his half-siblings from his father’s first marriage.  But here lies a problem, as there is no obvious candidate for his niece in the family genealogy, as presently understood and the claim remains a mystery.  What is clear is that Benjamin must have been an entertaining raconteur and that is largely how the book was written, as a series of amusing anecdotes, mostly relating his own experiences but sometimes retelling stories originating with his friends.  It is alleged that Benjamin Ottewell wrote a second autobiographical work, entitled “Loiterers all”, published in 1926.  No copy of this work has yet been uncovered in any public library or on offer from any second-hand book seller.

The Savage Club

Many of Benjamin Ottewell’s friends were fellow painters and some of them accompanied him on his forays into the countryside.  His membership of the Savage Club is also indicative of the type of company that he enjoyed.  This London club, founded in 1857 and still in existence, was the main meeting place for those of a Bohemian disposition, socially unconventional individuals inhabiting the worlds of art and literature.  In 1903, Benjamin Ottewell entertained his Scottish friend, John Michie, then the factor on the Balmoral estate, to dinner at the Savage Club, followed by a visit to the Alhambra Theatre of Variety.  Later, in 1907 on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary dinner of the Club, held at the Hotel Cecil, John Michie was again Ottewell’s guest.  One wonders what Michie, a Presbyterian Scot from the Highlands, made of these metropolitan experiences.  The Savage Club members were also involved in charitable work and in June 1907, they mounted an entertainment, the proceeds to be in favour of the Lord Mayor’s Crippled Children’s Fund.  “The Club’s most eminent artists including BJ Ottewell contributed sketches and pen and ink drawings with the result that an illustrated programme unique in its combination of varied styles and subjects was produced to stand as souvenir of the event and was sold at a moderate price for the benefit of the fund.“  In 1920, the Dundee Courier reported that “Several members of the Savage Club, an organisation which has for years attracted leaders in literature, art, science, music, exploration, politics, and other departments have been spending a most enjoyable and unconventional holiday in Braemar.  Company included Mr Arthur Pryde well-known musician, Horace Fellowes leader of the Scottish Orchestra, Mr Joseph Ivimey, Professor at the Guildhall School of Music, Dr George Pernet, Dr John Ivimey, and Mr BJ Ottewell.”  Horace Fellowes was an outstanding violinist and became Professor of Violin at the Scottish Academy of Music.  John Ivimey was an organist and composer who specialized in comic operas.  Dr George Pernet was a leading dermatologist.  Even in the 1920s, (BJ Ottewell was 73 in 1920) he maintained his contacts with an eclectic group of thinkers.  The venue for the holiday, Braemar, suggests that Ottewell may have been the instigator and organiser.

Partial catalogue

A list has been compiled of the pictures by Benjamin John Ottewell which have been offered for sale by art dealers in the recent past.  To this compilation had been added pictures held in private hands which have come to the attention of this author and lists compiled by members of the wider Ottewell family.  Although, given his artistic fecundity, the list is disappointingly brief, currently amounting to 190 works, it does give some guidance to his movements.  The earliest entry on this list is, “Field workers in landscape”, which is a watercolour on brown paper and is dated 1879.  Perhaps the medium indicates that Benjamin was then still suffering penury?  Other titles in the period 1879 – 1881, with one exception, have titles which are not place specific, though they do not suggest a location in the Highlands of Scotland.  Rather, they are consistent with the South of England.  The odd man out is “The Wandle near Mitcham”, now in the possession of Wimbledon Museum, which is precise as to the location of its genesis.

Female company and children

His book also reveals that Benjamin Ottewell enjoyed female company.  “I first vowed eternal fidelity at a very early age.”  “Since that time, I have loved much and very often!”  His list of paramours is a long and amusing one.  Katie, Emily, Emily, Emily, Florence, Annie (who exhibited polydactyly), Moll, Bet, Doll and Kate constituted the first ten ladies of his close acquaintance.  They were followed by the amusingly-named Dorothy Draggletail, though her nick-name was not explained and Mary, much younger than him, whom he clearly met in the Highlands of Scotland.  This lady was “not from our glen but from Banff, possibly Maggieknockater which lies between Kineavie and Boharm in the Vale of Fiddich”.  Improbable though the names of these places sound, they do exist and are located near Craigellachie in the Spey Valley, Banffshire.  It would not be unfair to describe Ottewell as a womaniser.

There was at least one other female companion who appears not to have been mentioned in the autobiography.  Although he never married, family rumour suggests that Benjamin John Ottewell had a close relationship with a lady by whom he had several children.  At the 1871 Census Hannah Sophia Holliman was recorded as the daughter of Henry Holliman, a coachman and she was born in 1863 at Marylebone, London.  At the next census in 1881 Hannah appears to have been working as a domestic servant for Stephen Belhome, a builder and his wife living in Wimbledon, which was also the location of the Ottewell family home at the time.  At all subsequent censuses she was described as being married, with a surname of Clifton, and the 1911 Census recorded her as having had this status for 30 years, implying a year of marriage of 1881.  At the censuses of 1891, 1901 and 1911, Hannah Sophia Clifton was living with the Willis family in Mitcham (or Tooting, which is adjacent) and from the 1911 Census it is learned that she and Mrs Elizabeth Willis were cousins.  No record has been found of a marriage between Hannah Sophia Holliman and a male with the surname Clifton and no husband named Clifton is present in the family home in any census post-1881.  This alleged marriage looks fictitious and was probably invented to cover up illegitimacy.  The surname “Clifton” may have been borrowed from a family friend.  One of the witnesses of the marriage of William Ottewell and Ann Pope was an “H Clifton”. An alternative source is the name of the row of houses, Clifton Villas, in Colliers Wood, where Hannah Holliman once lived.

Between the census dates of 1881 and 1911, six births, now believed to be extramarital, were detailed.  These offspring were all attributed with the surname Clifton in the census returns, though birth registrations differ.  The first two children were registered with the surname Holliman, the remaining four taking the name Clifton.  On some birth certificates the father is identified as “Benjamin Clifton, Artist”.  The children and their birth dates were as follows.  John Clifton, January 1882; James Frank Clifton, October 1883; Lucy Miriam Clifton, 28 January 1888; Catherine Louise Clifton 3 January 1898 (twin); Benjamin Clifton, 3 January 1898 (twin); Thomas Benjamin Clifton, 14 November 1904.  Two sets of DNA tests suggest that some, probably the youngest four children of Hannah Sophia Holliman, were fathered by Benjamin John Ottewell.  It will be noted that the two boys in this quartet both took the given name, Benjamin.  Was their mother signifying the identity of their father by this choice? 

Although the association between Benjamin Ottewell and Hannah Sophia Holliman existed for at least seven years, family rumour suggests that Benjamin had little or nothing to do with the upbringing of her children.  How did Hannah survive financially with apparently little income?  Apparently, she used to call on Benjamin to ask for money but these visits were not welcome.   One location where she used to meet Benjamin to extract finance from him was the Alexandra pub at Wimbledon Broadway.  Is it possible that the relationship was not based solely upon friendship but contained an element of payment for services rendered?  That possibility has been suggested by one of the descendants of the couple.  Commitment to a family would likely have curtailed Benjamin’s carousing and yarning with friends, principally in London and his long painting assignments, mainly on Deeside.  Perhaps this would have been a step too far for this hedonist?  Further evidence of a frosty relationship between Benjamin Ottewell and his children has been related by a relative.  About 1920, by which time Benjamin must have been in comfortable financial circumstances, he offered to help fund a venture by one of his children to set up an artists’ supply shop, but the offer was refused.

Braemar and Royal Deeside

In a brief obituary, which appeared in the Aberdeen Press and Journal, in March 1937, shortly after BJ Ottewell’s death, it was claimed that he had been a regular visitor to Braemar on Upper Deeside for “over fifty years” (at least since 1886).  One picture title (The Clunie near Braemar) from 1884 is the earliest definite Deeside picture executed by Ottewell.  Examination of the titles of his paintings produced in 1885 does not reveal a single picture which unambiguously originated on Deeside but at least one, Mid gorse and fern, which might have been inspired by that locality.  Others, such as “A bit of Wimbledon Common” speak clearly of their English affiliations.  In 1886, “Savernake Forest” (in Wiltshire), “Sheep and lambs in woodland meadow, early springtime”, “Spring/autumn”, “The oak’s brown side” “Woodland scene with beech trees” sound like descriptions of English settings and no clear Scottish painting subject has been uncovered.  Perhaps works from North of the Border are still lurking waiting to be unmasked?  However, the titles for the following year, 1887, demonstrate a marked connection with the Scottish Highlands.  “A Highland glen with a snow-capped peak in the distance”, “A river torrent”, “Scottish rivers” are the titles so far uncovered for 1887.  It seems that this was the year that he made his first major journey to the Highlands, though whether his destination was Braemar and its environs is unclear.  A single picture painted in 1888, entitled “Under the greenwood tree”, has been discovered.  In 1889 works such as “River landscapes with trees, “Country path lined by silver birches” and “The birch-encircled pool” are ambiguous as to location.  One further offering from that year, “Autumn in New Jersey”, suggests a visit to the United States, but no other evidence for a transatlantic foray is known.  No paintings dated 1890 have been discovered which might indicate Ottewell’s whereabouts but, in the summer and autumn of 1891, Benjamin John Ottewell was an extended visitor to Braemar.  The abundant evidence for this long stay on Deeside is related to the so-called Braemar Rights of Way campaign in which Ottewell was not just an active participant, but a ringleader.

The Ballochbuie 1916

The Braemar Rights of Way dispute

To understand the cause of the dispute, it is necessary to look back at the history of the Highlands.  The Aberdeen Journal explained the situation succinctly.  “In former days, in times prior to the penetration of the North by railways and coach roads, the hills had little value.  They could be crossed and re-crossed without anyone thinking of asking the reason why, or the pedestrian meeting a keeper or a fence.  But nowadays a heath or a scrubby mountain or a lonely glen has a higher value than the same amount of arable land had a century ago, or indeed in these days of agricultural depression has now.  It feeds grouse and deer which bring more money and employment into the country than sparse sheep or the crofts of scanty oats and with the wealthy sportsmen have come the sight-seeing tourists and the fashionable idlers who crowd the Braemar Gathering and other Celto-Cockney functions of the autumn season.  Between these two industries in the north, game and tourists there is a steady feud.  The latter insist on “rights” to which they have often little claim.  The game interest on the other hand resent interference with what has cost them so dear.”  The fashionable revival of Highland culture in the late 18th and early 19^th centuries and the growing popularity of country sports had thus generated a tension between the conflicting interests of two classes of wealthy visitors to the Highlands.

In 1890, Alexander Haldane Farquharson was the 23-year old, recently graduated, recently elevated owner of the Invercauld Estate, extending to about 100,000 acres, which was partly located between Braemar and the Balmoral Estate to the east.  His father, Lieutenant Colonel James Ross Farquharson (known colloquially as “Piccadilly Jim”) had died two years earlier, handing on control of the Invercauld lands to his inexperienced and impetuous son.   He, with a narrow-minded focus on his proprietorial rights, instructed his factor, RG Foggo to block a footpath, which ran from Castleton of Braemar (the part of the village on the east bank of the river Clunie), to the North Deeside road near Braemar Castle and running near a prominent cliff called the Lion’s Face rock.  This picturesque path had been used for many years by both local people and visitors and it was treated as a public right of way.  Generally in Scotland, there was and is an informal pact between the public and the big Highland landowners that reasonable access to mountains, forests and moors is tolerated.  AH Farquharson did not recognise a right by the public to access the Lion’s Face path as they pleased and he asserted that the sporting rights of his tenant, Sir Algernon Borthwick MP, were being compromised.

Most local people felt unable to challenge the authority of this powerful laird, who controlled the lives of many of them as landlord and/or employer.  The locals stayed largely silent, but not so the wealthy tourist visitors, including Benjamin Ottewell, who were mostly immune to the influence of Mr Farquharson.  They took the matter, literally, into their own hands and broke down the fences erected by Foggo’s men to prevent access.  The fences were re-erected and the defiance repeated, in all about 16 times over a period of several months.  John Michie, head forester on the adjacent Balmoral estate observed in his dairy on 18 August 1891 as follows.  “The Invercauld Factor R G Foggo having last year erected a deer fence across part of the Braemar Market Stance, thereby obstructing what is believed to be a right of way between the Braemar & Ballater road at a point opposite the Lion's face rock and the upper part of Castleton.  The visitors to Braemar have last week repeatedly broken down a roadway through the fence & burned the material as often as the Invercauld workmen erected it.”  Michie recorded these events in a matter-of-fact way, but probably thought the instructions of Mr Farquharson ill-advised, since even the Balmoral estate allowing reasonable access to its land.  In the circumstances, it was inevitable that AH Farquharson would resort to the courts for a solution to the conflict.

The opponents of Mr Farquharson formed a Provisional Committee for coordinating their efforts to frustrate the Laird of Invercauld.  Its members realised that they would need funds to pursue their defiance and sought donations by means of an advertisement in The Times.  The composition of the committee was N Fabyan Dawe (a watercolourist and member of the Society for Psychical Research), Clift House, Braemar; Henry Robinow (director of De Beers and speculator in South African diamond mines), Deebank,  Braemar; BJ Ottewell (watercolourist), Burnside, Braemar; Alexander Hendry (son of the Braemar postmaster), Post Office, Braemar; J Head Staples (later a JP in Cookstown, Co Tyrone), Bruachdryne, Braemar; C Ramsbottom, Fife Arms Hotel, Braemar; H Branson Firth (son of a steel manufacturer), Thrift House, Sheffield; TS Milln, Chichester Road, Croydon, Vernon Weathered (watercolourist and son of a Bristol colliery owner), Honorary Secretary of the Committee, Burnside, Braemar.  James Bryce, the local Liberal MP, first Honorary President of the Cairngorm Club and Robert Farquharson were amongst the donors to the protesters’ fighting fund, which was generally well-supported, though many contributors kept their identities secret.  One of the committee members, Mr Staples and his wife were so well integrated into the Braemar community that in August 1895, Mrs Staples organised a treat for the children of the village, which at least some of the Michie children attended.

Benjamin Ottewell would himself probably have branded his fellow protesters as “wealthy loafers”.  It is also noticeable that three committee members were watercolourists, which suggests a route by which Ottewell started to travel to Upper Deeside to paint.  Did his association with other painters, possibly through the Savage Club, alert him to the potential of the Deeside scenery to satisfy the needs of the landscape artist?  Its attraction to Benjamin Ottewell was summarised in his own words as follows.  “Our Glen.  No railway station within 20 miles.  Sixty miles from mill or mine.  All who go there once go until they die.  Some in June for long days and salmon fishing, others later for blooming heather and the slaying of grouse and deer.  Others for golden glories of October.”

Alexander Haldane Farquharson successfully applied for an interim interdict against Mr JH Staples (“the gentleman who stepped forward with the saw”).  But that only restrained one individual and the acts of destruction were continued by others.  Mr Farquharson then made a second application for interim interdict, this time naming all the members of the Provisional Committee and seeking to restrain them from “interfering with the fence partially surrounding  Craig Choinnich (the hill that the path skirted around) and from entering or trespassing upon that hill, and from using the path by the quarry to the Lion’s Face and also from entering or trespassing on the Lion’s Face Drive, better known as the Queen’s Drive.”  The plaintiff maintained in his statement to the court that the land over which the path was routed was private and that no right of way existed. He also specifically cited BJ Ottewell as a person who had participated in the destruction of the fence.  In the meantime, the residents of Braemar continued to use the path and Mr Foggo’s response was to station an unfortunate ghillie at the gap in the fence to demand names of those crossing this boundary.  He was generally ignored.

As a result of the lodging of this second plea for interim interdict, George Cadenhead, Procurator Fiscal for Aberdeenshire travelled to Braemar to take witness statements.  Subsequently, interdict was granted but contacts between the two opposing sides were established and in 1893 a compromise was reached.  The interdicts were lifted, and the path opened to public use, except between 20 September and 30 November, the busiest part of the shooting season.

Victor Fraenkl

One consequence of Benjamin Ottewell’s close involvement with the Lion’s Face rights of way campaign was that he met and became friends with a German immigrant, Victor Fraenkl, a partner in a Dundee firm of linen and jute exporters, Jaffe Brothers.  Fraenkl was also the German Consul and a prominent member of the Jewish community in Dundee.  Victor Fraenkl was a visitor to Braemar in the early 1890s and he became a supporter of the protest campaign, subscribing to its fund in his own name rather than using a pseudonym, such as “Wellwisher”, “Friend”, “Visitor”, “Anon.”, “Freedom”, “Corstorphine” or “Justice”.  Mr Fraenkl also bought some, possibly many, of Benjamin Ottewell’s watercolours. John Michie mentions that on several occasions, Benjamin Ottewell was a guest of Victor Fraenkl at his grand house at Tay Park, Broughty Ferry, an upmarket settlement four miles east of Dundee.  On Sunday 30 May 1897 Ottewell stayed overnight at Tay Park on his journey south from Deeside to Wimbledon and at early New Year 1904, he was a guest of Mr Fraenkl for several days while on his way north to Aberdeenshire. Ottewell returned south at the beginning of February and again called in at Broughty Ferry.   John Michie also visited Fraenkl at Tay Park to take tea at the end of March 1909, at a time when Ottewell was once more a guest of Victor Fraenkl.  Their host had recently undergone an operation on his stomach and, sadly, Fraenkl did not survive for long, dying in mid-June of that year.  In the October after his death, Victor Fraenkl’s picture collection was auctioned and raised the sum of £1200 (about £140,000 in 2018 money).  Included in the sale was “Meadow and Mountainside” by Benjamin Ottewell, which had been exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour.  It fetched £30 (about £3,500 in 2018 money).  It is not known how many Ottewell paintings Fraenkl owned but, over the next 20 years, other Ottewell works appeared for sale sporadically in the Dundee area.  For example at an auction held by Robert Scott and Sons, Fine Art Dealers, 19 and 21 Albert Square, Dundee in 1922, in the same town by the Dundee Auction Rooms a year later and, in 1924, Robert Curr and Dewar, auctioneers, offered “Wooded Landscape” by BJ Ottewell.  Further Ottewell works were put up for sale at the Mansion House, Taypark, in 1928, then in the ownership of a Mrs Danby and at “Bayfield”, West Ferry, Dundee a year later, “Autumn” by BJ Ottewell was one of the works on offer.  It seems likely that this cluster of Ottewell paintings originally arrived in Dundee due to their purchase by Victor Fraenkl.

Growing status as an artist

Benjamin Ottewell, by the early 1890s, was becoming more established within the arts community and he continued to display his work.  In Braemar, in September 1891, an exhibition was mounted by artists in the visitor community, all of whom had previously been successful in having pictures accepted by the Royal Academy.  In Ottewell’s display, “The Callater Burn in spate” and “Evergreen Pine” attracted much attention.  October 1892 saw Ottewell exhibiting at the New Gallery with “Where sleeps till June December’s Snow”, a title which captures a marked characteristic if the Cairngorms before the turn of the 19^th century.  1892 also saw Ottewell exhibiting at the Royal Academy again with “Across the heath”, possibly not a Highland scene.  At the end of 1893, the Aberdeen Journal advised its readers to visit a display of BJ Ottewell’s work in the shop window of Gifford and Son, carvers and gilders, printsellers and artists’ colourmen at 265 Union Street, Aberdeen’s main thoroughfare.  The newspaper described his works as follows.  “Lovers of Highland scenery have an opportunity of inspecting in Messers Gifford and Son’s window at present two admirable water-colours by Mr BJ Ottewell who has for the two past seasons found employment for his pencil in the Braemar district.  The first and more elaborate picture is a view from the Lion’s Face road looking northward across the tops of the hills towards Ben Avon the peaks of which fill up the background.  In the intervening forest and hills are some fine effects of light and shade and the whole subject, a somewhat difficult one, has been admirably treated.  The other picture is a study of fir trees &c in the forest on the skirts of Craig Choinnich, a subject which Mr Ottewell’s style of water-colour drawing shows to much advantage.”  The descriptions of the two works, whose titles were not given, could have been pictures he had already displayed at Braemar (“Evergreen Pine”) and at the New Gallery (“Where sleeps till June December’s Snow”).  In any case, Benjamin Ottewell had clearly been enjoying the hard-won freedom to use the path to the Lion’s Face across Mr Farquharson’s land.  Both were painted from that vantage point, as the Aberdeen Journal report makes clear.

 

Though much of BJ Ottewell’s work in the early 1890s dealt with subjects from around Braemar in the Scottish Highlands, not all his efforts were directed to depicting scenes found north of the border.  One of his 1893 pictures was titled “The Littleworth Road, Burnham Beeches”, which is a location in Buckinghamshire.  Another, from 1895, took the name “The Swilley pond Farnham”, which is in Surrey.

Initial meeting with Queen Victoria

It has been pointed out above that one of Benjamin John Ottewell’s principal marks of fame was his sale of many works to Queen Victoria.  In his biography he deliberately tries to obscure her identity and he describes their first contact, which he characterised as one of his many pieces of good luck, as follows.  “I made the acquaintance of a great lady through lack of agility – inability to get out of sight quick enough round the corner of a road and during the following six years sold upwards of 130 drawings to her besides many others to members of her family.”  It seems likely that Ottewell had been painting on the Balmoral Estate, perhaps without permission and possibly on the part of that estate which abuts the Farquharson land at Craig Choinnich.  The Monarch was no mean artist herself, was a keen collector of works of art, had a deep attachment to the countryside around Balmoral and so would be almost certain to take an interest in the efforts of a fellow artist painting on Upper Deeside.  Although by the 1890s Queen Victoria’s mobility was limited, she still drove out almost every day, usually in her “pony chair” and the estate road westwards, emerging by the Lion’s Face and exiting to Glen Clunie near Braemar, via the Queen’s Drive, was one of her favourites.  Ottewell’s words, “During the following six years”, almost certainly dates the meeting to the year 1894 or 1895.  The Queen died on 22 January 1901, so the year 1901 should be discounted, which results in a count-back of six years from 1900.  It is to be wondered if the meeting of Monarch and artist was coincidental, or if Ottewell engineered his piece of good luck.  Other evidence points to the year 1894 as being the correct alternative.  One of Ottewell’s paintings, dated 1894, had the title, “Mrs Mitchie’s cottage, Balmoral”.  This was the home of John Michie and his wife Helen, which was called “Danzig Shiel”.  It was built about 1880 after Michie was appointed as Head Forester and is located at the foot of the Ballochbuie Forest about five miles west of Balmoral Castle and about half-way to Braemar.  Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to Danzig Shiel, where she often took tea with the Michies.  Danzig Shiel also contained two rooms for the Monarch’s exclusive use, which Helen Michie was employed to clean.  The failure by Ottewell to spell “Michie” correctly suggests that at the time he may only have recently made the acquaintance of Helen Michie and may not then have met John Michie, otherwise the cottage’s attribution would likely have been to him.  Other evidence pointing to 1894 as the date of the meeting is contained in the Court Circular of 8 November 1894.  “Mr B Ottewell had the honour of submitting some of his water-colour sketches of views on Deeside for Her Majesty’s inspection.”  This presentation is likely to have followed shortly after the first meeting with the Queen, which could not have therefor been later than 8 November 1894.  That year the Queen’s second visit to Balmoral extended from the end of August to the middle of November.

The Danzig Shiel 1896

The hard winter of 1894 - 1895 

The Linn of Dee is a steep defile in a narrow part of the upper Dee, ten miles west of Braemar and a magnet for painters and tourists alike.  It is the striking off point for long distance paths to Speyside, via the Lairig Ghru, and to Blair Atholl through Glen Tilt.  The Linn of Dee displays spectacular scenery and it was almost inevitable that the Linn would be frequented by Benjamin John Ottewell while lodging at Braemar.  The year of Ottewell’s first visit to the Linn of Dee is difficult to state with certainty, but could have been 1887, the year after his first acceptance by the Royal Academy.  He was lodging with a poor, widowed “wifie” at £1 per week.  She had been left with eight children and an annuity of £10pa.  To make some additional income she “Let her spare rooms to tourists and mountaineers and also supplied teas and other small refreshments”.  Besides her humble friends she also became acquainted with “the greatest lady in the land” (Queen Victoria) and the first meeting was when she was very young.  Never a year passed without a call from the “great one”.  The wifie was rather fat and when Queen Victoria enquired after her health she would respond with “I’m as fit to row as to rin.” 

 

One day Ottewell, while residing at the Linn suddenly realised that, as he had broken into his last sovereign, he was about to run out of money.  But then he was saved by another piece of the good luck, which he claimed had visited him throughout his life.  An angler fishing unsuccessfully nearby in the Dee caught his attention and after some conversation bought £60 (about £7,400 in 2018 money) worth of his pictures, ten times the annuity income of Ottewell’s landlady.

An entry in Queen Victoria’s Journal for 4 June 1895 confirms that Benjamin Ottewell also lodged at the Linn of Dee in the winter of 1894 – 1895.  “Took tea at the Dantzig Shiel with Beatrice & Louisa A. Saw there some beautiful sketches by an artist of the name of Ottewell, who has spent several months in Braemar, painting, having been snowed-up for some weeks, in the winter, at the Linn of Dee.”  That winter is recognised by climatologists as having been particularly severe.  It came at the end of a decade of very bad winters throughout Great Britain and is viewed by some meteorologists as the end of the so-called “Little Ice Age”.  Ottewell wrote about his experiences as follows.  “The winter of 1894 – 1895 was one of the most severe of our time and lasted over 15 weeks from 27 Dec to the middle of April.  Snow fell fine as flour for weeks.  Frost bound the river and snow covered it from sight.  The cold was intense.  Saw 13 hinds and stags lying dead within 100 yds of each other.”  A hedgehog even took up residence in the kitchen of the cottage where Ottewell was lodging, in order to escape the cold.

First meeting with John Michie

The first mention in John Michie’s diaries of him meeting Benjamin Ottewell was on 4 April 1895.  “At Bridge of Dee we met Mr Ottewell the Artist who I caused to apply for Colonel Bigge's authority ere I would consent to take him into my house while he sketched in Ballochbuie forest.”  The “Bridge of Dee” is located near the entrance to the Invercauld Estate, about seven miles east of Balmoral Castle and was built in 1859 to divert the road between Braemar and Ballater from the south bank of the Dee to the north bank in order to improve privacy and security for the Royal family while at Balmoral.  The exact meaning of this diary entry is unclear but the implication could be that John Michie was aware of Ottewell’s residency in the district but was unsure of his status with the Royal family, hence the reference of the matter to Colonel Bigge, who was the Queen’s private secretary at the time.  The reference to “take him into my house” almost certainly means that it was being proposed (by Her Majesty?) that Ottewell should become a lodger with the Michies while he painted in the Ballochbuie.  This forest was and is one of the most picturesque parts of Deeside and contains remnants of the ancient Caledonian Forest with many mature Scots Pines.

A friendship develops

It is clear from further entries in John Michie’s diaries that Benjamin Ottewell did lodge with the Michies, perhaps for as long as two months in April – June 1895 and quickly became a friend of the Michie family.  The children of John and Helen Michie, seven in total, would have ranged in age from Alexandrina (3) to Annie (16) at the time.  Ottewell was known to them as “Uncle Bones”, which sounds like a child’s corruption of “Uncle Ben”, the sobriquet Ottewell had worn since an early age.  The first diary reference to Ottewell had been on 4 April.  Others quickly followed.  Monday 8 April.  “Had a stroll through the woods with Mr Ottewell and spent evening in reading yesterday (ie Sunday, probably in preference to attending church at Crathie about 6 miles distant).”  Monday 22 April.  “Yesterday walked to Craig Darign with Mr Ottewell the Artist instead of going to church.”  Tuesday 23 April.  “Mr Ottewell still paints scenes in the Ballochbuie forest.  Today he has been working on a picture of the Fiendallacher at the high bridge on the crosswalk above the junction of that stream with Garrawalt.”  Friday 26 April.  “ … in the evening drove down to Balmoral and went to a concert in the Iron Ballroom. … Mr Ottewell the Artist went down along with me.”  Wednesday 15 May.  “ … in the evening drove to Braemar with Mr Ottewell, thence to the Linn of Dee.”  Monday 20 May.  “Remained at home yesterday being tired but walked by the Brig o'Dee in the afternoon with Mr B J Ottewell the Artist who is still staying with us & whose company I relish very much.”  Tuesday 21 May.  “At the Invercauld Arms (Braemar, that evening) we Mr Ottewell & I played a game at billiards, or rather he gave me a lesson in the game.”  Saturday 1 June.  “By arrangement with Sir Fleetwood Edwards (Keeper of the Privy Purse) took nine water colour drawings by B J Ottewell down to the Castle for the Queen's inspection.  Left them with Sir F and proceeded to Birkhall … .”

These exchanges illustrate just how personable Benjamin Ottewell was.  He appears to have been thrust upon the Michies with little foreknowledge but was able to charm the family to such an extent that a stay of about two months did not seem to prove burdensome to them.  John Michie would later describe Ottewell as an “artist and humorist”.  Ottewell went south soon after leaving the Michies but he returned in early July 1895 “to spend a night with us on Mrs M's invitation, on his way to Braemar where he means to reside during the remainder of the summer.” 

A developing relationship with the Royal family

Benjamin Ottewell also appears to have charmed Queen Victoria and several of her daughters and grand-daughters.  During the Monarch’s second visit of 1895 to Balmoral, which lasted from the end of August to the middle of November, there were significant contacts between the Royal party and the artist.  On 8 October, John Michie recorded that he was interrupted in his work by a message that the Queen was coming to tea at Danzig Shiel.  “This put me off & after she, the Princesses Beatrice & Christian (Helena, Queen Victoria’s third daughter and fifth child, who married Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein in 1866 ), Prince & Princess Henry of Prussia (Princess Henry was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria whose mother was Princess Alice, the Monarch’s third child and second daughter) & Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein (Princess Helena’s daughter) left drove Mr Ottewell to Braemar to get one of the pictures he had sold to a Mrs Osborne to show the Queen &c tomorrow, he having been commanded by the Queen to go down & the Princess Christian asked me to drive him, with his stock of paintings.”  Ottewell had clearly stimulated great enthusiasm for his work with Balmoral’s Royal residents.  John Michie also reported in his diaries that in May 1897 he took BJ Ottewell with him to Balmoral Castle to see Princess Christian, though it is not clear what was the purpose of this interview. 

Following his initial encounter with Queen Victoria on the Balmoral Estate, it seems likely that various members of the Royal family recommended him to paint some scenes near other Royal residences.  Resulting works included “Windsor Castle from the Park”, painted in 1895 and King’s Quay, Osborne, 1896, the latter produced at the suggestion of Princess Henry (Beatrice).  It appears that Ottewell was, on at least one occasion, provided with accommodation at Windsor, in The Cottage, Cumberland Lodge, located in Windsor Park.  Queen Victoria recorded in her Journals on 28 May 1896, “After 5 drove with her & Marie L. to below the Falls of the Garravalt, where we had tea & then drove by the Old Bridge to the Dantzig, where we stopped to look at some lovely sketches by M^r Ottewell, which the Michies brought out for us to look at.” 

It was reported in March 1897 that, “The Queen’s visit to the sunny South (of France) is causing a good deal of excitement in that part of the world and Her Majesty has shown her appreciation of the lovely scenery by entrusting Mr BJ Ottewell with a commission to paint her several pictures of the landscapes she loves so well.  He is accompanied by an amateur painter of great efficiency, Mr Pitt Taylor and both are busily occupied in sketching.”   Pitt-Taylor had also been in Braemar in October 1896.  Benjamin Ottewell refers to this journey to the South of France in his autobiography.  “Fifteen years ago, my great Lady Patron commissioned me to make a series of sketches in the South of France.”  Ottewell mentions places visited as including Faicon near Nice, the valley of the Vesubie north of Nice and Pera Cava near the Italian border.  Three paintings dated 1897 by Ottewell have the titles “A view of a castle in a Highland landscape”, “Grey day at St Pons” (St Pons is a village in the Alps about 80 miles north-west of Nice) and “The Gorge of St Andre, the Alps in the distance” (located adjacent to St Pons).  The last two works listed for 1897 must surely have been produced on the assignment at Queen Victoria’s command. It was also in this period that Benjamin Ottewell was engaged by Her Majesty to teach painting to Princess Henry (ie her youngest daughter Beatrice).  Queen Victoria recorded in her Journal for 24 April 1897, written at the Hotel Regina, Cimiez, “Sat with Beatrice whilst she painted with M^r Ottewell.”  The Aberdeen Press and Journal’s brief obituary of Benjamin Ottewell, published in March 1937, noted that he gave painting lessons to “several of the royal princesses”. 

A descendant of Benjamin Ottewell reported, “Several years ago I was told by an East Anglian art dealer that he sold an Ottewell painting of Windsor castle dated 1902.  On the painting was an inscription saying that the painting had been a present to the Queen of Spain on the event of her marriage.  On the back of the painting was a sketch of Queen Victoria collecting blackberries.  Without my prompting he said that Ottewell had taught Queen Victoria’s grandchildren to paint.”  Perhaps most intriguing is the existence of the sketch on the back of the main picture.  Such an informal drawing of the Monarch would surely only have been countenanced by her if Benjamin Ottewell was a trusted and familiar associate?  Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (1887 – 1969) was the only daughter of Princess Beatrice and her husband Prince Henry of Battenberg.  She married King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1906. 

Benjamin John Ottewell

Queen Victoria's and Prince Albert’s etchings

Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on 10 February 1840.  Over the next decade she bore seven children.  Prince Albert died on 14 December 1861, allegedly of typhoid fever, though doubt has recently been thrown on the accuracy of that diagnosis.  Queen Victoria was a keen artist and between 1840 and 1845, Her Majesty frequently referred in her Journal to the Royal couple creating etchings of a variety of subjects, including portraits of their dogs and children.  On occasions, she was helped in this work by Edwin Landseer, famous for his emotional animal portraiture.  Etching involves covering a metal plate, typically copper, with a wax layer and then incising the metal through the wax layer to create a picture.  Acid is then used to eat into the metal where it is exposed and the acid and wax subsequently cleaned away.  The metal surface is then inked and the surface wiped leaving ink only in the depressions.  A sheet of paper is then applied to the metal and the metal plate and paper run through a printing machine to impress a mirror image on the paper.  The same metal sheet can be used repeatedly to produce many prints.

Altogether the Queen produced 62 copper plates and the Prince a further 25.  Very few and incomplete sets of prints from these plates still exist, as they were only ever intended to be the products of a Royal hobby.  Prints were produced for Victoria and Albert by a local printer in Windsor, John Brown, but one of his employees by the name of Middleton, produced extra copies.  He sold a collection of 63 different prints to Jasper Thomsett Judge who tried to exploit this breach of Royal copyright by mounting a public exhibition for which catalogues were produced.  Prince Albert successfully used the courts to prevent the publication and exhibition of prints of the engravings.

A second theft of Royal etchings?

In his autobiography, Benjamin John Ottewell relates a yarn originating with an acquaintance whom he calls “Barabbas”, no doubt because of his “tendency to dishonesty”.  (The original, Biblical Barabbas was a prisoner at the same time as Jesus of Nazareth and was due to be executed, but was freed by Pontius Pilate.)  The “Barabbas” tale involved the acquisition by him of prints produced “a long time ago” by “the great lady at the Castle” and “Hubbie”.  In this story “Barabbas” alleges that a theft of prints from the castle was detected and, after an investigation, a footman dismissed without a pension.  Subsequently the former employee fell on hard times, partly through drink and illness.  This man was responsible for the removal of the prints because he sent his wife to “Barabbas” to tell him the story and to ask him to visit their home to view the prints.  When shown some of the pictures, “Barabbas” immediately recognised their authorship, as they had been signed by both etcher and printer.  Ottewell’s mendacious friend then acquired all the prints in the possession of the former footman and his wife for two guineas plus “an extra quid”.  The prints were hot property and not easy to place and “Barabbas” did nothing for a long time.  He claimed he knew the “private secretary” at the Castle and wrote to him letting the Royal employee know that the etchings had “come into my possession in a very extraordinary way” and that he would return them.  The private secretary replied, “as I knew he would”, saying that the affair had blown over and “for God’s sake let it remain so”.  “Barabbas” was told he should dispose of the etchings quietly.  He claimed to have then found “an American” who paid him £100 (about £12,000 in 2018 money) for the lot, except that, “Oh I kept most of the best for myself.”

There is little doubt that the “Barabbas” story relates to the print-making activities of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle in the 1840s.  It is a fantastical tale and it would be easy to dismiss it as an invention, which evolved from the true events in Windsor, elaborated and transmogrified by a fertile mind under the influence of substantial quantities of alcohol, by frequent repetition and elaboration.  But, if it does contain a basis of truth, is it possible that it refers to a second, presently unrecognised, theft of Royal property from the Castle?  It certainly differs from the established crime in several fundamental ways.  The theft was from inside the castle by a Royal servant, not from the town by an employee of a printer, a senior courtier chose to cover up the theft, rather than advise legal action and the prints were acquired illegally by a dodgy individual who sold them on to an American.  Without any independent evidence to support the anecdote, it is likely to be discarded as fanciful but, at the same time, it is not so outrageous that it can presently be judged to be completely implausible.

Ottewell’s integration into the life of Upper Deeside

Being very personable and sociable, and residing in Braemar for weeks or months at a time, it was inevitable that Benjamin Ottewell would become intertwined in the social life of the village.  He was already regarded as a champion of local residents’ interests through his involvement in the Lion’s Face path campaign of the early 1990s.  At the annual meeting of the Young Men’s Catholic Association in Braemar, held in November 1894, Benjamin Ottewell was thanked for “a very handsome drop-scene which he lately presented to the Society for scenic purposes”.  His musical abilities were also in demand and in September 1895, the Dundee Courier reported as follows.  “Last Monday evening another of the series of concerts which have proved so successful at Braemar took place in the Victoria Hall.  Mr BJ Ottewell again conducted and the choir, which is one of the largest yet brought together, acquitted themselves most creditably."

Benjamin John Ottewell continued to frequent Upper Deeside with extended stays, even after the death of Queen Victoria.  He maintained his friendship with John Michie and often lodged overnight, or occasionally for longer periods, at both Danzig Shiel and at Bhaile na Choile, John Michie’s house during much of his tenure as Balmoral factor.  Being well-connected in the Braemar community of both locals and visitors, Ottewell would, from time to time, turn up at the Michies’ home accompanied by prominent visitors.  One such contact, who accompanied Ottewell in May 1897 was Edward Cunningham-Craig, a prominent Scottish geologist who carried out significant mapping work for HM Geological Survey between 1896 and 1907.  In May 1911, Ottewell visited the Michies in the company of two prominent friends, Mr Woods, a London stockbroker and Mr Shirran, the bank manager at Braemar.

The year 1895 brought tragedy for the Brown family of Balmoral. Albert Brown, the doctor son of William Brown, John Brown’s brother, died suddenly of peritonitis, at the age of 26.  He had only completed his medical training two and a half years previously and was living in Camden, London. This was devastating, not only for William Brown and his wife, but also for Queen Victoria, whose affection for John Brown to a significant degree extended to the whole Brown family.  Mrs Helen Michie immediately visited Mrs Brown “to pay her sympathies”.  The funeral took place from Bhaile na Choile, which was built for John Brown by Queen Victoria and was occupied at the time of Albert’s death by his brother William.  Benjamin Ottewell arrived at the Michies’ house just before the funeral to stay for a fortnight.  John Michie wrote in his diary, “Rain this morning with cold wind from the noreast.  Drove Mr O (Ottewell) down & took my kilt suit with me for the funeral of Albert Brown as HM insists on wearing it even on these solemn occasions.  The funeral service took place at Baille-na-Choille about 3 pm, the Queen being present.  The whole obsequies were conducted in continuous rain & wind which continued till dark.  Ottewell & I reached home about 5.30 thoroughly wet.”  Thus, Benjamin Ottewell was so well accepted at Balmoral that he felt it appropriate to attend Albert Brown’s funeral and John Michie thought it in order to take him there.

Another reflection of the frequency of Benjamin Ottewell’s visits to Braemar was his mastery of the Doric, the Aberdeenshire dialect of the English language.  He was even familiar with the book “Johnny Gibb of Gushet Neuk”, which was written by journalist William Alexander using the local argot.  This work is recognised as one of the finest descriptions of rural life in Aberdeenshire in the mid-19^th century. 

Queen Victoria died at Windsor Castle on 22 January 1901.  She had been on the throne for 64 years and there was a great outpouring of national grief at her passing.  Many actions were subsequently taken on a local level to raise memorials to a much-loved monarch, not the least on the Deeside estates of the late Queen.  Benjamin Ottewell was so much part of the community and had some familiarity with the Monarch, that he was included in the estate meeting to discuss a memorial.  John Michie recorded in his diary on Saturday 20 April 1901 as follows.  “Attended a meeting of Tenants & Servants convened to consider what form a Memorial for the late Queen Victoria will take to be subscribed for by them.  Mrs M, myself & Alex. with Mr Ottewell drove down, lunched with the Forbes (the Balmoral factor) at Craig-gowan and proceeded to Abergeldie Castle where the meet was held.”

Golf on Upper Deeside

A golf course was created on the Balmoral Estate “near the Danzig” sometime before 14 March 1901 because on that date John Michie wrote that “William Glass the plumber has promised to make me six zinc (golf) hole linings which will improve our present state”.  Soon afterwards, when the snow had cleared from the course, Mrs Sibbald, wife of the newly-appointed minister at Crathie Church, called for a game.  Golf was then played regularly by the Michies and their guests and visitors to the Danzig Shiel.  Benjamin Ottewell soon started to sample the limited joys of the Balmoral course, his first recorded game being on 18^th May, when, “Played a game of golf with Messrs Forbes (Balmoral Factor), Dadge (Crathie Church organist who had married into the Brown family) & Ottewell and dined at Craig-gowan in the evening.”  The experience must have been enjoyable because a day later “Mr & Mrs Forbes came to the Danzig in the afternoon when the latter & Mr Ottewell played the former and my wife at golf, the Mrs' side lost. Mr Jackson & I fished and got one fish.”  The following day Wednesday 22 May there was even more golf.  “Went to Balgownie Links (Aberdeen) with Messrs Forbes, Jackson and Ottewell to have a game of golf by Mr Forbes’ invitation, who is a member of the golf club there.”

 Subsequently, a golf game involving a combination of John Michie, Benjamin Ottewell, Mr Forbes, Mr Dadge and Mr Jackson was prosecuted on several occasions during 1901, while Forbes was still in post as the Balmoral Factor.  By October 1901 there may also have been a small golf course in the environs of Craig Gowan, nearer to the Castle.  Benjamin Ottewell continued to play golf at Balmoral on a regular basis when resident on Deeside for many years.  He was still visiting the Michies in 1919, when the John Michie diaries effectively terminated on his retiral but the last round of golf at Balmoral actually recorded was in 1911.

Braemar Golf Club was founded 1902.  It was created on generally level land at the foot of Morrone hill on Croftmuickan farm, which had been leased for the purpose.  On 13 June 1903 a 9-hole course was opened.  Benjamin Ottewell and other Braemar visitors were involved with the promotion of the Golf Club from the start.  John Michie, Ottewell’s friend, played the new course for the first time on 11 November of that year.  It was a costly business to get a full 18-hole course laid out and prepared and funding was needed.  In September 1903 a concert was held before a large and appreciative audience in the Victoria Hall in the village to raise funds for the Club.  The Aberdeen Peoples Journal reported that, “Rev CE Plumb and Mr BJ Ottewell, artist, deserve great praise for their admirable work in organising the entertainment.”  A further fund-raising concert was held in August the following year, when “The arrangements which were complete in every way were in the capable hands of Mr BJ Ottewell.”  A third concert was held in 1905 but it is not clear if Ottewell was involved on that occasion.  By this time, extensive Royal and noble patronage had been attracted for the event, the patrons including the Duke and Duchess of Fife, Princess Henry of Battenburg (Princess Beatrice), Prince and Princess Dolgorouki, Lord and Lady Kilmaine, Lady Blanche Bailie and Mr and Mrs Farquharson of Invercauld.  Ottewell must have been quite a good golfer, since he was a member of the Braemar team which played Mar Lodge in June 1905, winning his match at the age of 57.  In 1911 – 1912, Benjamin Ottewell was elected to the Braemar Golf Club Committee.  He achieved this honour again in 1922 – 1923.  On his death in 1937, the Aberdeen Press and Journal wrote, “Mr Ottewell took a great interest in the welfare of Braemar especially in the golf club and was much esteemed by the community and visitors.”  Back in the metropolis, Benjamin Ottewell was also a member of the Raynes Park Golf Club.

Other sports

Golf was not the limit of the shared sporting activities of Benjamin Ottewell and John Michie.  For example, they occasionally fished together on the Balmoral reaches of the Dee.  Ottewell was also invited to shoot at Balmoral from time to time.  In December 1903, he accompanied John Michie on a drive for roedeer hinds, Ottewell getting two animals to Michie’s one, which Michie found worthy of four exclamation marks in his diary.  Ottewell was a novice while Michie was a crack shot with a rifle.  A further joint deer hunt took place the following December.  Ottewell also accompanied John Michie and the keepers to a shoot for partridge on Micras Moor in October 1904, when the bag was 10 ½ brace partridge, one brace woodcock, three brace rabbits and a hare.  Another foray onto Micras Moor, the same year, resulted in two foxes being shot, one by Benjamin Ottewell.  He received further occasional invitations to shoot at Balmoral, the last one recorded in Michie’s diary being in 1911.  But shooting and fishing were principally John Michie’s sports.  In his autobiography, Benjamin Ottewell recounts, without date (but probably December 1903), an occasion when he was shooting roe hinds with John Michie and the keepers.  He had participated in a series of drives after hinds, a keeper being with him to point out the beast to be fired at, but on the first two occasions, nothing came his way.  At the last drive he was left to his own devices and shot two hinds, but they were the wrong ones, being “milkers”, still suckling young.  He asked the head stalker why he had no keeper to guide him and was told, in blunt Highlander fashion, it was because they did not expect him to hit anything!

In the severe winters of the 1890s and 1900s, the sport of curling was pursued with enthusiasm during the winter months on both artificial ponds and natural bodies of still water on Deeside.  John Michie was a keen curler and Benjamin Ottewell, though not a habitual participant, joined the Braemar Curling Club and also curled at Balmoral, for example on the pond of the Royal Lochnagar distillery.  Although his level of competence was not recorded, it is likely Ottewell, having good hand – eye coordination, would have taken to the “roaring game”.  On one occasion (1914) Ottewell’s Who’s Who entry claimed a sporting interest in cycling and he was a member of the French Touring Club.

Braemar visits continue

In the summer of 1899 Ottewell was again a visitor to Braemar, inhabiting Auchendryne Cottage.  At the time his home address was 1 South Park Road, Wimbledon.  The Ballochbuie seems to have absorbed much of his enegies and several paintings for that year have come to light with Ballochbuie in the title, “After rain the Ballochbuie from old Brig O’Dee”, “Ben a Bhuaird (one of the High Cairngorms) from Ballochbuie” and simply “From Ballochbuie”.  The following year, 1900, he returned to Braemar but also spent some time in Continental Europe.  1901 saw Benjamin Ottewell revert to old haunts in the South of England, painting “Surrey common” and “New Forest sunrise”, in addition to his usual location of Upper Deeside, where he produced “The Dhu Loch”.  By 1904 he had acquired a bicycle which made travel around the Upper Deeside district easier.

Benjamin John Ottewell signature and address, 1911

Royal interactions after Queen Victoria

After the death of Queen Victoria in early 1901, her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, then aged 59, came to the throne as King Edward VII.  With his mother having reigned for so long, “Bertie”, as he was known to the family, had spent a long time as Prince of Wales kicking his heels and engaging in dissolute activities, such as gambling, drinking, eating to excess and womanising.  His reign, which only lasted just over nine years and his Balmoral visits differed markedly from those of his mother.  Queen Victoria was attached to the art of Benjamin Ottewell and it seems likely that she and at least some of her daughters also had an attachment to this humorous and handsome paintsmith.  However, there is no indication that Ottewell was close to Prince Albert Edward, for example there is no entry in John Michie’s diaries linking the two men, either before or after Prince Albert Edward’s accession to the throne, though it seems likely that they knew each other.  However, King Edward VII did buy art works by Ottewell, as did the Duke and Duchess of York, according to Delia Millar in her book “Queen Victoria’s life in the Highlands depicted by her watercolour artists.” With the death of Queen Victoria, Ottewell had lost his main Royal patron.  It was likely there would be no more requests to tutor Royal offspring, no more commands to paint views around other Royal residences and no invitations to accompany members of the Royal family on their vacations in order to capture a record of the local scenery.  However, he did maintain some Royal contacts.  Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagmar was Edward VII’s third child and eldest daughter, who became the Duchess of Fife when, in 1889 she married Alexander Duff, 1^st Duke of Fife.  His domain was the Mar Lodge estate near Braemar.  Each year the Fifes would hold a ball for their tenants and on at least two occasions Benjamin Ottewell was a guest, one being in 1919.  King Edward VII died on 6 May 1910 and was succeeded by his son, George Frederick Ernest Albert, who reigned as George V until his own demise in 1936.  It is not known directly if the new monarch was acquainted with Ottewell or if he was a fan of his work but one Ottewell oeuvre in the Royal collection is “Primroses: Firstlings of the infant sun”, painted about 1923, which might have been purchased by George V.

Perhaps the most surprising Royal connection enjoyed by Benjamin Ottewell, which has been uncovered during this study, was his association with Princess Beatrice (1857 – 1944), Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter.  She married Prince Henry of Battenberg in 1885 and had four children, but her husband died tragically of malaria in 1896 while serving with the British Army in West Africa, leaving her a widow at the age of 39.  Before the death of the Prince, Ottewell had painted a picture of a dead stag in forest scenery for him.  During Queen Victoria’s lifetime (she died in 1901), Benjamin Ottewell was engaged to paint Beatrice’s portrait and also to give her painting lessons.  After the death of Queen Victoria, Princess Beatrice spent many years editing her mother’s diaries, condensing them to perhaps one third of their original length and removing all materials which might cause embarrassment, before causing the originals to be burnt.  According to the descendants of Benjamin Ottewell, he received a photograph from Princess Beatrice, showing her reclining on a chaise longue and with a personal message, thought to have been, “To my loving Benjamin”.  Is it possible that the relationship between Ottewell and the Royal Princess extended further than a painter – sitter, or pupil – teacher relationship? 

Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria

World War 1 and beyond

John Michie was factor on the Balmoral estate from early 1902 until summer 1919, when he retired.  Throughout this time Benjamin Ottewell paid regular visits to Aberdeenshire and to Balmoral to stay with the Michies and to join in with the usual round of sporting diversions, especially playing golf both at Balmoral and at Braemar.  John Michie’s eldest son, David Kinloch Michie (1881 – 1949) had followed his father into the profession of estate management and in 1909 was working for the Elderslie Estate, Deanside, Renfrewshire.  In March of that year Benjamin Ottewell was the guest of David Michie for a period of two to three weeks while travelling from London to Aberdeenshire.  Ottewell’s artistic output was maintained, and it is clear from the titles of his works that some of them were created outside Scotland, though most works for the rest of his life were of Deeside subjects.  He could now afford to stay at the Fife Arms in Braemar when he chose, rather than resort to renting a cottage in the village.

There was a regular annual routine of Royal visits to Deeside until the outbreak of war in summer 1914, when the affairs of state kept the monarch, King George V, away from his country sporting activities in Scotland.  During WW1, Ottewell continued to visit Deeside, but the exact number and timing of visits is unclear, mainly due to the absence of John Michie’s diaries for 1914, 1916, 1917 and 1918.  The 1915 diary reveals that Ottewell was residing in Braemar during July.  In that month, John Michie was visited by Dr Fred J Smith, a botanist, who wanted Michie to guide him to some rare Alpine plant species, including the sedge Carex, in the area.  Michie could not oblige Smith and asked Ottewell to substitute for him.  Michie wrote, “He wants me to go to Caenlochan (a remote Grampian glen in the County of Angus, now recognised for its rare plant communities) with him on Sunday but fear I can hardly do it - Mr B.J. Ottewell who is at Braemar for a fortnight will go.”  Over the years Ottewell must have gained a detailed knowledge of the country around Braemar and was clearly competent to undertake this favour.   Benjamin Ottewell also continued occasionally to paint Royal subjects from England.  In 1916 he produced “Distant view of Windsor”. 

Benjamin John Ottewell, Bath, 1930

John Michie, retired to live at Blairs, near Aberdeen in 1919.  Although he and Benjamin Ottewell had known each other for over 20 years, it is not known if they maintained contact, or visited each other after this date.  In September 1925 the Aberdeen Press and Journal reported, “Mr JB Ottewell the popular watercolour artist celebrated his 75^th birthday yesterday (11 September) and received the congratulations of his many friends at Braemar.  Mr Ottewell is still hale and hearty and able to delineate landscapes with inimitable charm.”  A steady stream of work by Benjamin Ottewell continued throughout the 1920s but no painting by Ottewell dated later than 1930, when he was 83, has been discovered, nor any evidence that he visited Braemar after that year.  Between 1906 and 1925 Benjamin Ottewell lived, with his sister Hannah, at 18 Herbert Road Wimbledon, having previously occupied several different addresses in this south west London suburb.  In 1925 he moved away from the metropolis to occupy “a modest but large stone-faced semi-detached house overlooking the Great Western Railway” in Bath, “Dunbar House” 65 Lower Oldfield Park.  He lived there until his death on 21 March 1937, when he was in his 90^th year.  No entry has been found for him in the National Probate Calendar, though it is difficult to believe he was without an estate to declare at the end.  Ottewell’s niece, Lily Small, witnessed his death and he was buried in St James’ Cemetery, Bath.  His sister Hannah was subsequently buried in the same grave.

Benjamin John Ottewell with his nephew William Samuel in 1935

The legacy of Benjamin John Ottewell

The most prominent feature of Ottewell’s make-up was undoubtedly his complex personality.  He showed early in life that he had a curious mind which searched for meaning in the details of his name and the date of his birth.  His deductions may have been wide of the mark, but he still needed mental agility to ferret out the associations that he judged to be significant.  It was also the case that he had strength of character, being apparently unaffected by the discovery, at a young age, of human corpses and his refusal to be cowed by a brutal and demeaning school disciplinary regime.  Benjamin Ottewell’s abilities at and enthusiasm for sport, combined with his inter-personal skills, made influencing people and forging friendships in adult life a natural accomplishment, even with members of the Royal family.  He was a raconteur and a humorist and his company was enjoyed by both sexes, but obviously for different reasons.  However, in marked contrast, these undoubted interpersonal skills appear not to have been employed in his relationships with his own offspring, to whom he was indifferent. Although he attributed his repeated instances of good luck to the operation of benevolent fate, from today’s perspective it seems that he made his own luck and his good fortune in life was simply a consequence of his likeable persona.  But he appears to have entertained some self-doubt, especially when his work was being exhibited alongside the produce of artists with a much higher public status  Was this the reason why, when he was induced to write his autobiography, he sought to anonymise its authorship and to confound the reader by omitting many details of time and place?  Ottewell seems to confirm this view. “These trivial recollections are not the work of a celebrated man with a claim to respectful consideration but of a poor landscape painter, old and unknown.  They are set forth anonymously for that reason; to sign them would convey but little or nothing to the general public.”  His craving for anonymity, however, seems to have resulted in a lack of partiality in the selection of incidents in this account of his life.  He told it as it was, though the book does owe much to the multiple hours he spent in the company of artistic friends in animated conversation, lubricated by alcohol and tobacco.

Benjamin John Ottewell at his painting hut in the Highlands, 1930

Benjamin Ottewell was a successful landscape watercolourist during his career, despite his critical self-evaluation.  He did not receive universal acclaim, the critic, HL Mallalieu saying that he was sometimes “clumsy and woolly”.  But his success was undoubtedly helped by his association with Queen Victoria and her family.  In early- to mid-career, his best pictures sold for up to 100 times the price (adjusted for inflation) that they fetch today.  For example, “River landscape” painted in 1883 sold for the equivalent of £18,400 in 2018 money.  It is therefore pertinent to ask why his status has changed so substantially.  There are probably several contributing influences.  Watercolour landscapes are quick to produce.  Thus, the market for such art works is easily flooded and there were many artists producing pictures in this medium, especially in popular tourist locations, in the late 19^th century.  Watercolour landscapes today are mostly the product of amateur artists and small-time professionals selling to seaside visitors and the likes.  Currently few or no leading artists, as defined by their public recognition by institutions such as the Royal Academy, paint in this medium.  The association with Queen Victoria, which provided a significant support for the value of Ottewell’s pictures during her lifetime, became progressively less influential after her death.   This monarch’s status in the public mind has declined over time from queen of the nation which was the most economically powerful on earth, with an empire covering one quarter of the land area of the globe, to a historical curiosity, mainly associated in the public mind with questionable relationships involving favoured servants, such topics being regularly dramatised by the film and televisual media.

But Ottewell’s art works endure and are still valued by people who understand their historical significance, or who know and prize the landscapes he portrayed.  Those who love the Highlands of Scotland and especially the Dee valley in Aberdeenshire recognise the special ability of the man to capture the essence of these precious natural assets.  Ottewell’s varied and complex life is a valid subject for research but his art, too, still deserves to be exhibited for public enjoyment.

Don Fox

20200224

donaldpfox@gmail.com

I am indebted to Clive Wooliscroft , Barry Thomas and Barbara Wilson for giving access to materials they hold on Benjamin Ottewell.  Also, my thanks to Alison Innes for making available her transcript of the diaries of John Michie.