Thomas Coleman Dibdin (1810+1893) Open Air Festival. Watercolour/gouache. 53 X 74 Cm

Thomas Colman Dibdin was an illustrator and painter. Born at Bletchworth, Surrey, on 22 October 1810, his father was the playwright Thomas Dibdin. Born at Bletchworth, Surrey, on 22 October 1810, his father was the playwright Thomas Dibdin. Born at Bletchworth, Surrey, on 22 October 1810. His father was the playwright Thomas Dibdin. He began his working life at the Central Post Office as a clerk, aged seventeen. Eleven years later, at the age of 28, he left this job to devote himself to professional painting. Dibdin travelled extensively throughout Europe, particularly in France where he painted many churches and cathedrals, and in Germany and Belgium. There he sketched the old towns and fine buildings. Dibdin later invented the process of chromolithography. He died in Sydenham on 26 December 1893. He spent some time in the Essex area drawing and painting. He published sketches of houses in the area and made a watercolour of Saffron Walden Church. It was probably during his stay in Essex that he met the Jones family of Saffron Walden and later married Ann Alice Jones, sister of the Reverend William Taylor Jones, a successful teacher. In his later years TC Dibdin worked for Reverend William at Sydenham College.