Journal

But rather than speculate on the very real possibility that Branwell never visited
architecture, I would like to focus on his early associations with art and his
brief career in Bradford as a portrait artist and then proffer some reasons for
abandoning this venture. If during this talk Branwell’s likeable but essentially
flawed personality conjures up the likes of the brilliant Welsh poet, Dylan
Thomas, it is important to remember that Branwell was not a genius and had
it not been for his famous sisters and for the undeniable burden his unsettled
life had placed upon them, he would be remembered today only by a name
on a gravestone in a small Yorkshire cemetery.
As with his sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, Branwell’s exceptional literary
and artistic gifts manifested themselves at an early age. Branwell in particular
was prolific at sketching and used to decorate almost every piece of paper he
touched with pen and ink drawings. His ‘Battell Book’, dated March 12, 1829
but composed when he was nine contains five sketches in pencil and
watercolour of soldiers, battle scenes and a castle. Patrick Brontë, recognising
his children’s drawing ability, engaged local artists to give them instruction.
Two Keighley artists, Thomas Plummer and John Bradley were most likely
their first teachers. William Dearden, Keighley school master and friend of the
Brontë family, mentioned seeing
the Brontë children often in the
studio of John Bradley, an
enthusiastic amateur artist and
founder member of the
Keighley Institute. 6 This was
probably during the two year
period from 1828.
Under Bradley’s guidance, the
children would have copied a
variety of prints and pictures
from books and magazines of
well-known works as copying in
those days was considered an essential part of early training. Thomas Bewick’s
intricate engravings of barnyard owls and rustic scenes in his books A History
of British Birds and A General History of Quadrupeds would have provided the
children with many delightful subjects to copy. Eleven-year old Branwell,
possibly inspired by Bewick, cleverly captured the gentle rhythmic purring of
the parsonage’s cat in a pencil sketch, his earliest extant picture 7 indicative that
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Branwell’s ‘Sleeping Cat’ – Brontë
Parsonage Museum