Charles Joseph Sturge

Today's the day .................... for some family history

Came across this exquisite watercolour painting today of Charles Joseph Sturge born in 1845, the son of Caroline and Joseph Young Sturge. It was painted in 1876 by someone who signed himself as A Clark . So if you work it out, Charles Joseph was thirty-one by this time.

It's about 6 ins wide by about 9 ins high and is painted on a piece of cardboard. Glued to the back of this cardboard is a piece of newspaper and if you look at the various articles, you can see that it is contemporaneous with the date on the painting.

I've done a bit of family history research and I know where young Charles fits into the Sturge family tree. The Sturges are a very well known Quaker family dynasty and several members of it did some quite amazing things in the past.

As yet, I know nothing more about Charles than I have written above - but I can't help thinking that he has quite a story to tell too. Who was A Clark and how did he/she come to paint this lovely portrait ....... and why on a piece of cardboard?

So many questions I'd like an answer to .........