Scarlett Davis

Scarlett Davis? She shows up in the 1830s sale catalogues because she slipped watercolour sketches of half-ruined châteaux into the margins of aristocrats’ letters. The Duc de Montmorency’s former home is still damp on the page, its crumbling staircases lit by the same pale afternoon that must have leaked through the original French windows.

You’ll feel the chill off the paper, she painted on-site, hat pulled low, ink still smudging if you tilt the frame. Hunt down the 1831 watercolour; once it dries out you can almost hear the pigeons shifting in the rafters.