George Heming Mason

Mason was brought up at Wetley Abbey near Leek and articled to a surgeon. Without finishing his medical training he travelled to Rome with his brother in 1843 following his desire to become a painter. Self-taught, he drew the Italian peasantry and their surroundings and, once war broke out and his brother joined Garibaldi’s army, he helped tend the wounded. After the 1848 Revolution he went on expeditions in the Roman Campagna.

His close friendships with Giovanni Costa and Frederick, Lord Leighton were important and influential to the development of his art, particularly the importance of sketching from nature, so important to Costa.

After his return to England to marry his cousin Mary he settled at the family home in Staffordshire which he inherited in 1859. He had considerable influence on British landscape painting after Pre-Raphaeliteism had begun to wane. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, where he was elected ARA in 1869 and at the Dudley Gallery.