Clarke, Petit and St Mark’s: A 19th Century journey on the Isle of Man, Philip Modiano, RPS Publications, 2022, 44p., £9.00 [plus postage]. ISBN 9781916493117. Contact via enquiries@revpetit.com

In this extraordinary booklet Philip Modiano explains the architectural and personal relationship built up between the notable water-colourist, the Revd John Louis Petit, and an Isle of Man clergyman, the Revd John Thomas Clarke, over a considerable period of time. Modiano reveals how Petit supported this clergyman in his remote parish in the development of the church and its wider provision.

He then reveals the circumstances in which Clarke ceased to be vicar of St Mark’s and then how he moved, at what would be judged to be a considerable age, to Caerdeon Chapel in North Wales. In doing this he was then to devote his later ministerial years to developing the only church which Petit himself had designed, and he did this with the active financial and personal support of Petit’s sister, Emma Gentille Petit.

Modiano feels that these were ‘two good men’ who had come’ to be erased from history’, effectively forgotten. Just recently, based on the author’s energetic work and effort, John Louis Petit’s importance has now been clearly recognised in his home town of Lichfield in tangible and developing ways; and on the Isle of Man Clarke’s contribution and achievement is now significantly celebrated within St Mark’s Church.

For the emerging audience of enthusiasts for the water-colours of Petit, this booklet offers an additional delight because it contains over twenty of his paintings, some of which may be hitherto unknown to the reader.