February in the Isle of Wight

With its bright, sharp colours and intense detail, this watercolour typifies the Pre-Raphaelite approach to landscape. As a student Brett had been deeply affected by the work of the Pre-Raphaelites and by the writings of John Ruskin, who had urged artists to 'go to Nature in all singleness of heart, ...rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing'. After Brett exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1858, Ruskin championed his work.