A Venetian Beauty (1880-1900)
Breakspeare was born in Edgebaston, the son of an artist. He trained in Paris and at the Birmingham Government School of Design and was a founding member of the Birmingham Art Circle. He was also one of the ‘Birmingham Boys’, a group of artists from the city that went to Cornwall in search of the inspirational light and landscapes to be found there.
This painting was a bequest to the museum from Phyllis Lee-Duncan, the last surviving grandchild of the Russell-Cotes’ and the last member of the family to run the Royal Bath Hotel. When she died in 1996 she gave us many artworks that the family had retained or that had been kept in the hotel.
