John Hassell (c. 1767 – 1825) was a prolific landscape artist and drawing-master in the late Georgian era, who left an invaluable visual archive of the landscape and buildings of southeastern England. A specialist in topographical illustration, he worked in watercolours and engravings. He travelled extensively in Surrey producing a careful record of towns, rural villages, and grand estates of the time before the coming of the railway.
Born around 1767, possibly in Wales, Hassell became an established artist in London. He made his debut as an exhibiter at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1789 with a watercolour of Stonehenge. While he spent the 1790s working primarily as a book illustrator, he found his true vocation in the burgeoning market for "picturesque" topography. This romantic aesthetic combined a passion for rustic beauty with the strict accuracy demanded by early 19th-century antiquarians.
Hassell supported his travels by operating a highly successful practice as a drawing-master, teaching watercolour painting to wealthy clients and publishing several instructional manuals on the subject.
He also moved in prominent artistic circles, developing a fierce loyalty to the celebrated but troubled painter George Morland, (an extreme alcoholic, permanently on the edge of financial collapse) whose biography Hassell wrote and published in 1800.
Hassell’s painting technique was deeply rooted in his professional background as an engraver and watercolour drawing master. His method was highly systematic and formulaic, heavily relying on strong, precise under-drawings in diluted brown ink or graphite to anchor his compositions.
He built up his landscapes using a structured sequence of transparent, layered washes of restrained colour, a method he taught to amateur artists in manuals like Aqua Pictura, which he published in monthly parts in 1813. It featured sets of plates showing the same painting in four progressive stages: etched outline, monochrome aquatint, aquatint with a background tint, and a final fully hand-coloured aquatint.
His work was characteristic of the late 18th-century "Picturesque" aesthetic. He used dynamic atmospheric skies, soft, stylized foliage and idealized terrain to smoothly blend buildings into their surrounding pastoral landscape.
Though Hassell visited several counties, much of his work was in Surrey, covering its landscape and architecture in several published travel volumes. His Views of Gentleman's Seats Adjacent to London (1804–1805), focused on the countryside estates of Surrey's gentry. He followed this with Picturesque Rides and Walks within Thirty Miles of the British Metropolis (1817–1818) and Excursions of Pleasure (1823), which were early local guidebooks for affluent Londoners looking to escape the capital.
In the early nineteenth century gentlemen liked to collect a standard published text of local history together with hundreds of their own unbound prints and original watercolours to personalise their copy in the style of an earlier work by James Granger. Hassell’s style was ideal for this "extra-illustration" market.
Hassell’s connection to Surrey was strengthened in the early 1820s when the wealthy Dorking banker and collector, Robert Barclay of Bury Hill, Dorking, commissioned him and his son, Edward Hassell, to systematically document the county. Barclay's intention seems to have been to 'grangerise' his copy of Manning and Brays’ The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, (1804 and 1814).
Hassell painted at least 550 detailed watercolour views for Robert Barclay, documenting everything from the ancient timber frames of local cottages to prominent landmarks like Chertsey Bridge, Guildford Grammar School, and Epsom's St Martin's Vicarage.
The ‘grangerising’ project required his compositions to remain consistently bright, clearly defined, and tightly bounded. Because Barclay never got round to binding these drawings but kept them in protective portfolios, the watercolours avoided being trimmed, glued, or ruined.
Hassell spent significant time travelling through the East Surrey, illustrating and commenting on Reigate, Bletchingley, and Merstham.
In Reigate, he described the historic ruins of Reigate Castle, and painted the church and library and the local gentlemen’s houses as well as Flanchford Bridge.
Further east, Hassell described Bletchingley, as ‘a small but pleasant town, seated on a hill, and commanding an extensive prospect of the surrounding country.’ He and Edward painted numerous views including St Mary’s Church and the subsequently demolished alms houses.
In Merstham Hassell painted several buildings including the church and the parsonage.
What makes Hassell’s watercolours compelling for those interested in local history is that his paintings are a faithful depiction of houses, churches, alms-houses and bridges. Hassell died in 1825, but his artistic legacy lived on through his son Edward, who inherited his father's sketchbooks and passion for local scenery. Today, hundreds of John Hassell's original watercolours and those of his son Edward are preserved at the Surrey History Centre in Woking, a reminder of a lost rural landscape.
Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hassell, John
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Hassell,_John
Surrey History Centre & Exploring Surrey's Past:
Exploring Surrey’s past
The following pictures by John Hassell are reproduced by permission of Surrey History Centre and are Copyright Surrey History Centre. https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/artists/john_hassell/
Flanchford Bridge, 1824, SHC Ref No: 4348/2/59/7
St Mary's church, Bletchingley, from north, 1825, SHC Ref No: 8291/4
Reigate Church, Surrey, 1822, SHC Ref No: 4348/2/44/2
Bletchingley Almshouses with church in background, 1821, SHC Ref No: 8291/1
Merstham Church, Watercolour, 1821, SHC Ref No: PX/101/21
Parsonage House at Merstham, Rev Mr Benson, 1822, SHC Ref No: 4348/2/69/2
The Robert Barclay Collection Catalogues:
https://www.surreyarchives.org.uk/collections/getrecord/SHCOL_4348
Byfleet Heritage newsletter
https://www.byfleetheritage.org.uk/newslet%2041.pdf
Memoirs of the Life of the Late George Morland, John Hassell
https://archive.org/details/memoirsoflifeofl00hassrich
Picturesque rides and walks, with excursions by water, thirty miles round the British metropolis; illustrated in a series of engravings, coloured after nature; with an historical and topographical description of the country within the compass of that circle. J. Hassell ... v.1 (1825)
The 1984 study by J.C. Batley and G.P. Moss, titled 'A Catalogue of Pictures of Surrey and Elsewhere by John Hassell (1767–1825) and his son Edward (1811–1852)', published in volume 75 of Surrey Archaeological Collections, pages 1–55.