The Courtyard of Barnard's Inn

The watercolour depicts a view of the courtyard of Barnards Inn, Holborn. In Great Expectations Chapter 21 Dickens describes it on the south side of Holborn, where Pip had chambers, opposite Furnival's Inn:

'........the dingiest collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together, in a rank corner as a club for Tom-cats...a melancholy little square that looked to me like a flat burying ground...it had the most dismal trees in it, and the most dismal sparrows, and the most dismal cats, and the most dismal houses...A frouzy morning of soot and smoke attired this forlorn creation of Barnard and it had strewed ashes on its head, and was under-going penance and humiliation as a mere dust-hole'.

Very little is known about James Lawson Stewart who exhibited watercolours in various London galleries between 1883-1889. He died in c. 1918 and towards the end of life was employed to copy prints of London; the accuracy of some of the locations should therefore be questioned.

The Museum was gifted a large selection of watercolours featuring locations which appeared in Dickens's works in 1934 and a set of cigarette cards was issued by R and J Hill Ltd in 1926 and 1934 entitled Historic Places from Dickens Classics which featured watercolours by Stewart.