(1831 - 1902)
John Brett was born in Bletchingley, Surrey; the son of an army captain. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools and became an admirer of the Pre-Raphaelites and of John Ruskin. Influenced by Ruskin’s ‘Of Mountain Beauty’ he travelled to Switzerland to paint the Glacier of Rosenlaui. Ruskin later advised and tutored him, until their well-documented falling out. During the 1870s Brett painted mostly marine subjects and owned a succession of sailing boats to paint from. He frequently painted the Cornish coast. He was also a keen astronomer and a member of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1871. Brett lived near Oxford Street in London, before building a bungalow at Keswick Road, Putney, in 1877 and then Daisyfield on Putney Heath in 1888.
