The Salute, Venice, showery weather.

Arthur Severn was the son of Joseph Severn (1793-1879), painter and friend of John Keats during his last years in Rome. He exhibited his first painting at the Royal Academy in 1863 and subsequently showed at the Royal Institute of Water Colour Painters. He married Ruskin’s cousin Joan Agnew in 1871, and in the following year they accompanied Ruskin to Venice with Albert Goodwin. He painted Venice on many subsequent occasions, and was at his best in this kind of fresh, informal watercolour.