Lot Essay
Feted as one of the most atmospheric painters of London topography, Rose Barton was born in Dublin, and moved permanently to Knightsbridge in 1903. Many of her London views are reproduced in Familiar London, published by A & C Black in 1904. An associate of the Society of Women Artists, she became a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1911. The Physic Garden in Swan Walk, Chelsea, is the second oldest in the country (the oldest being founded at Oxford in 1621). It was established in 1676 by the Apothecaries Company and in 1681 housed England's first stove-heated greenhouse. Botanical research is still carried out there.