Welcome to this special landing page for visitors who came to the talk about Clarence Bicknell on 7th May 2026 or saw the exhibition of his art 17-15 May, both as part of the Cookham Festival and in the Gantry House Barn in the village. Do please click here to look at the details of the Cookham Festival.
You can browse Clarence’s art by clicking Art above, then selecting one of the galleries. The best known is the iconic Casa Fontanalba Visitors’ Book of 1906. Some of the most startling and innovative Clarence Bicknell’s creations are in the seven albums in the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.
You can buy full-size art reproductions of Casa Fontanalba Visitos’ Book watercolours by clicking on Shop above.
Although Clarence is known as a painter of botanical water colours, he painted and drew sketches all his life. The Bicknell family collection and the Museo Bicknell in Bordighera have many examples of architecture, landscapes and images which Clarence observed on his travels.
His watercolour of Florence, left, is dated 1885, the same year as the publication of his Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Riviera and Neighbouring Mountains from which this watercolour of Aristolchia, an insect catcher (image, above right) is taken.
We are looking for an art expert to write an appreciation of Clarence’s painting and drawing for this page; in the meantime, the assessment of Susie Bicknell, an amateur water-colourist, gives a good overview of his skills. Download her paper at the following link…
Clarence Bicknell – His Art By Susie Bicknell, 2017
Marcus Bicknell, Fbruary 2026