Hercules Brabazon Brabazon

Initially raised in Paris, he moved with his family to Oaklands, an estate near Sedlescombe, East Sussex, in 1832. His father then wanted him to study law, but instead he left England and went to Rome to study music and art, enrolling at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and Accademia di San Luca. He gained financial independence when he inherited family estates in Connaught, the will requiring that he change his surname to Brabazon. From then on he led a life of travel, art study and painting, inspired by the works of artists such as Velázquez and Turner. He did not show or try to sell his work until his mid-seventies. With the encouragement of artist friends, particularly John Singer Sargent, he began to exhibit, first at the New English Art Club, followed by successful one-man exhibitions at the Goupil Gallery in Bond Street. He died at the height of his success in 1906, and is buried at Sedlescombe.