• About
  • Colonel Unthank’s Norwich #2
  • Contact
  • Latest Colonel Unthank’s Norwich Book #3
  • Posts
  • Unthank Book #1

COLONEL UNTHANK'S NORWICH

~ History, Decorative Arts, Buildings

COLONEL UNTHANK'S NORWICH

Tag Archives: John Sell Cotman

The Norwich School of Painters

15 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by reggie unthank in Norwich history, Norwich School of Painters

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

John Crome, John Sell Cotman, Joseph Stannard, Norwich School painters, Norwich society of artists

Formed in 1803 by John Crome (1768-1821) and Robert Ladbrooke (1768-1842) the Norwich Society of Artists was the first art movement to be associated with a specific British region [1,2]. It would be surprising if the history of the city hadn’t shaped the Society’s approach to landscape painting.

John Crome by Opie.jpg

Portrait of John Crome by John Opie. NWHCM: 1899.4.15. Opie was married to Amelia Opie, Norwich campaigner against slavery.

The Society’s founders had humble beginnings: Crome was apprenticed to a coach painter while Robert Ladbrooke worked with a printer and engraver. The two became friends, went on sketching expeditions, lived together in a garret (where else?), married two Berney sisters and later founded the Society as a meeting place for artists [1]. Crome remained President until his death in 1821.

large_gbad6470.jpg

Robert Ladbrooke (1768-1842), from a drawing by his son John Berney Ladbrooke. Courtesy Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery NWHCM : 1940.FAP2

The first meetings are said to have been held either in Little Cockey Lane or in the Hole-in-the-Wall Inn just a few dozen yards north. Cockey is a dialect term for stream and although various routes are suggested for this water course a map from 1830 clearly shows Little Cockey Lane running along the back of what is now Jarrold’s Department Store. 

1830 Plan of the City of Norwich 1.jpg

Sir Benjamin Wrench’s Court off Little Cockey Lane was demolished in 1826 to make way for the first version of the corn exchange (red star). Hole-in-the-Wall Lane = purple star. Millard and Manning’s plan of Norwich 1830, courtesy Norfolk County Council.

In 1805 the Society’s first exhibition was held in Sir Benjamin Wrench’s Court, which was demolished when the new Corn Exchange was built in 1826 on the corner of Exchange and Little Bedford Streets. 

large_tc08073.jpg

The ‘court’ of Sir Benjamin Wrench (d1747), physician, Lord of Little Melton. Etching by David Hodgson 1836. NWHCM: 1954:138.Todd8.Wymer.77

The Society, which ended in 1833, was outlived by second and third generation artists gathered under the umbrella term of the Norwich School of Painters. As many as 79 painters were formally associated with the School; individual styles varied but what united them was the countryside in which they painted. The French artists Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) had had a profound influence on British landscape painting; both worked in Italy, both employed a picturesque ideal of the Italian countryside as backdrop to their classical, mythological or biblical tales. This was the epitome of ‘High Art’ … 

Ascanius_Shooting_the_Stag_of_Sylvia_1682_Claude_Lorrain.jpg

‘Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia’ by Claude Lorrain (his last painting, 1682). Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

… but the Norwich School painters adopted a humbler model closer to home – Dutch Realism [1,2]. In the second half of the C16, King Philip II of Spain embarked on a programme of violence to root out Protestantism in the Spanish Netherlands, as a result of which around a third of Norwich’s population was comprised of Dutch and Flemish religious refugees [3]. Following this dark period, Dutch painting tended to focus on small, humanistic themes as opposed to the religious subjects that still dominated art in the Catholic south. Dutch Realism was to have a strong influence on landscape painting in Norwich. The realists rejected imaginary landscape in favour of naturalistic countryside that, if it contained figures at all, contained ordinary people going about their everyday lives. Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael (1629-1682) was a particular influence.

Screenshot 2019-08-16 at 13.06.56.png

Ruisdael’s ‘A Wooded River Landscape with a Bridge, a Church Beyond’ (1650s). Courtesy Christie’s. Intriguingly, this picture was once owned by ‘Colonel Clement Unthank of Intwood Hall’ [4], presumably Colonel Clement William Joseph Unthank. The painting has been variously attributed to van Kessel III, Ruisdael or Hobbema but in 2011 Sotheby’s sold it as a Ruisdael for £181,250. 

This realistic vision of countryside adopted by the proletarian painters of the Norwich School was therefore at odds with the ‘improved’ version that landscape architects Capability Brown (1716-1783) and Humphry Repton (1752-1818) offered the English upper classes – huge private parklands in which lakes were dug, streams rerouted, trees uprooted, all in search of a classical ideal represented in paintings that their clients admired and probably collected on the Grand Tour.

Before he worked for the coach painter, 12-year-old Crome was employed by a physician, Dr Rigby, presumably delivering medicines [5]. Dr Rigby, who had an impressive art collection [1], introduced Crome to another great collector and amateur painter, Thomas Harvey (1748-1819) of Old Catton, whose town house was on Colegate. 

IMG_1480.jpg

Harvey House in Colegate Norwich.

Harvey came from a line of wealthy merchants, ten of whom were mayors of Norwich. He married the daughter of a Rotterdam merchant and gathered a collection of Dutch masters – some directly from dealers in Antwerp – that Crome was allowed to copy [5,6]. Although Ruysdael’s pupil Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709) was not well known in his lifetime he was regarded as the ‘true inventor of the wooded picturesque landscape’ [6] and had a strong influence on Crome and the Norwich School.

hobbema 2.png

A Wooded Landscape by Meindert Hobbema 1667. Courtesy The J Paul Getty Museum

IMG_1569.jpg

‘Norwich River: Afternoon’ by John Crome ca 1819. Considered to be one of his finest paintings, the scene is probably near St Martin’s at Oak (Oak Street). The oil was painted on mattress ticking. NWHCM: 1994.189 

Crome was one of the first English artists to paint identifiable species of tree rather than generic forms.

Screenshot 2019-08-14 at 14.51.08.png

The post-card-sized ‘A Wooded Landscape with an Oak’, by John Crome. Courtesy Sphinx Fine Art. This tree is recognisably related to The Poringland Oak held in Tate Britain

In 1821 Crome died at home in Gildengate Street, off Colegate. His last words were said to have been: ‘Hobbema, my dear Hobbema, how I have loved you’ [7]. He was succeeded by two sons, John Berney Crome and William Henry Crome – both notable landscape artists in their own right – and a daughter Emily who painted still-lifes.

IMG_1472.jpg

Crome was buried in St George’s Colegate in the parish from which he rarely ventured far

Where Crome was gregarious and ebullient Ladbrooke was morose, his paintings dark. Ladbrooke’s sons, Henry and John Berney, were also considerable artists and members of the Society. In 1816, Ladbrooke formed a breakaway group, the ‘Secession’, possibly over the use of Society funds, possibly over Crome leaving the Presidency to Sillett [5].

Foundry Bridge, Norwich.jpg

‘Foundry Bridge, Norwich’ (1822-1833) by Robert Ladbrooke. Courtesy Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery. NWHCM: 1938.26. 

The Society held annual exhibitions from 1805 until the 1830s and when Norwich-born John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) returned from London in 1807 he exhibited 20 works [1]. Several influences can be detected in his paintings including Claude and, in his more experimental paintings, Turner [6]. Cotman evolved a distinctive style, playing with perspective to produce a flattened picture plane composed of blocks of colour in which detail was carefully suppressed [2]. In 2016 I wrote about a visit to the Norwich Castle Study Centre, Shirehall, to see a favourite painting – The Marl Pit – that was no longer exhibited [8].   

cotman_themarlpit_new2.jpg

John Sell Cotman, ‘The Marl Pit’ c1809-1810. Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery. Using a limited palette Cotman built up interlocking blocks of deep watercolour separated by crisp edges. The dark green tree mirrors the cloud while other contrasts – light against dark, dark against light – guide the eye around the painting. 

In 1803-5 Cotman spent the summer with the Cholmondeley family at Brandsby Hall in Yorkshire. There he painted what the Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum thought to be ‘the most perfect examples of pure watercolour ever made in Europe’ [1].

Greta Bridge Cotman.jpg

‘Greta Bridge, Yorkshire 1810’ by JS Cotman NWHCM: 1947:217.159. The British Museum has an earlier version of 1805

In 1812, the Great Yarmouth banker and collector, Dawson Turner, employed Cotman as drawing master to his wife and daughters for £200 per annum. Cotman moved his family to be near Turner and there he produced a significant number of seascapes.

Cotman_Storm-on-Yarmouth-Beachx600.jpg

In his later paintings, Cotman exchanged his crisply outlined clouds for fluid shapes. By adding flour paste to watercolour Cotman was able to apply paint that resisted running but could still be manipulated with a rag or sponge. ‘Storm on Yarmouth Beach, 1831’. NWHCM: 1947.217.210

In 1823 JS Cotman returned to Norwich where he opened a School of Drawing at St Martin-at-Palace Plain.Cotmans School.jpg

By plotting Norwich School ‘paintings on a map of Norfolk it is immediately clear that the majority were painted along the waterways’ [9]. Before the coming of the railways water was essential for trade; it also allowed the Norwich School artists access to the eastern waterlands: nowadays they would be dotted along the A47.

IMG_1576.jpg

John Sell Cotman. Acle Flats and Marshes c1830s. NWHCM: 1961.85. 

Cotman’s financial position improved in 1834 when he was appointed Professor of Drawing at King’s College School, London. With him went his son, Miles Edmund Cotman (1810-1858) who exhibited with the Norwich Society at age 13 and would later start paintings for his father to finish and sign [10]. JS Cotman referred to these as joint efforts and, perhaps unfairly, Miles Edmund was never entirely viewed in his own light.

miles edmund cotman.jpg

‘Gorleston Harbour’ by Miles Edmund Cotman. NWHCM: 1951.235.626. Miles, who painted numerous scenes of boats on water, is considered to have been an excellent ‘architectural’ draughtsman but less good at figure drawing.

John Sell Cotman suffered from serious depression as did Miles Edmund and his brother Alfred, who was committed to an asylum. The family illness also afflicted another son, John Joseph  Cotman (1814-1878) [10].

john-joseph-cotman2.jpg

John Joseph Cotman ca 1860. NWHCM: 1921.21.23.1

Unlike his older brother, John Joseph eventually broke free of the house style to paint in a bold manner, rich in colour and reminiscent of Samuel Palmer’s mystical works. By the end of his life this tramp-like figure, known around Norwich as Mad John or Crazy Cotman, produced poetical landscapes that were ‘like the sight of a brightly dressed demi-mondaine at a gathering of Quakers’ [11].

Landscape-with-Sun-Set-Haystacks-and-Owl-Watercolour-36x52cm.jpg

John Joseph Cotman ‘Landscape with Sun Set, Haystacks and Owl’. Courtesy Mandell’s Gallery, Norwich

13 - Cotman JJ - Witlingham Church (2).jpg

John Joseph Cotman’s ‘Whitlingham Lane, Norwich’ ca 1873

Joseph Stannard (1797-1830) was considered to be the finest painters of sea and river scenes of the school and may well have achieved national status had he not died young from tuberculosis [1,5]. When asked to engage Stannard as apprentice Cotman requested an extortionate sum and the boy was taught instead by Ladbrooke, explaining why Stannard joined Ladbrooke’s Secession rather than the Society. Stannard’s work ‘tends to be bright and highly finished like the Dutch masters’ as can be seen in his most celebrated work, ‘Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon’, which recorded an event attended by nearly 20,000 people. In this large painting the central sail divides the working people on the right from the gentry at Thorpe Hall – including owner, Colonel John Harvey – to the left.

IMG_1559.jpg

Joseph Stannard, ‘Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon’ 1825. NWHCM 1894.35.

On the extreme right is Stannard himself, looking across to the other side, probably for his money; Colonel Harvey failed to pay for this large commission, leaving Stannard considerably out of pocket [1].

IMG_1560.jpg

Joseph Stannard. Detail from ‘Thorpe Water Frolic, Afternoon’

Stannard lived in the heart of the city, in St Giles Terrace off Bethel Street.IMG_1587.jpg

Like the Cromes, Cotmans and Ladbrookes, Joseph Stannard belonged to a family of painters: wife Emily, daughter Emily, brother Alfred, Alfred’s eldest son Alfred George, and Alfred’s daughter Eloise Harriet. Eloise Stannard (1829-1915) ‘was without doubt a most brilliant painter‘ [1] who exhibited at the Royal Academy. Her still lifes are judged amongst the best Victorian paintings of this genre.

IMG_1550.jpg

Duchess Pears with Black Grapes in a Basket 1895 by Eloise Harriet Stannard. NWHCM 1933.116.1

James Stark (1794-1859) met John Berney Crome at Norwich Grammar School and became a favourite pupil of his father, John Crome. Under Crome’s tutelage Stark was immersed in Hobbema’s techniques but after painting watercolour out of doors his work became lighter. In 1828 Stark was elected Vice-President of the Norwich Society of Artists and, in the following year, President.

StarkCromerNWHCM_1975_688.jpg

‘Cromer’ by James Stark c 1830s. NWHCM: 1975.688

His father’s name, Michael Stark, crops up in previous posts as the man thought to have invented ‘Norwich Red’, the dye that coloured the city’s cloth [12]. James’s son, Arthur James, was also an artist. The Starks are interred in a family plot in the Rosary Cemetery – the country’s first non-denominational burying ground [13].

IMG_9645.jpg

The Stark family monument in the Rosary Cemetery, Norwich

George Vincent’s life was short (1796-c1835). One of Crome’s most prodigious pupils he moved to London where his grand, ambitious paintings brought the Norwich School to a metropolitan audience. He overspent what money his wife brought to the marriage, turned to drink and was sent to the Fleet Prison for debt [14]. One of his best known paintings illustrates the continuing bond between Norfolk and the Dutch.

yart1547.jpg

‘The Dutch Fair at Great Yarmouth’ by George Vincent 1821. Norfolk Museums Collections GRYEH: 1956.136. The annual Dutch Fair was held on Great Yarmouth beach under the shadow of Nelson’s Monument. 

Henry Bright (1810-1873. Spouse, Eliza Brightley) was born in Saxmundham, Suffolk but moved to Norwich when apprenticed to chemist Paul Squire of London Street, a keen collector of art [1]. Bright took lessons from John Berney Crome and from John Sell Cotman but by exhibiting in London, and selling his second Royal Academy exhibit to Queen Victoria, he ensured a following among the metropolitan elite that gave him wealth beyond Cotman’s dreams. Bright’s highly finished paintings divide opinions: some say overly theatrical [8], others think none are without great merit [5].

Henry-Bright.jpg

‘Cattle and Drover before a Wind Pump at Sunset’ by Henry Bright 1849. Courtesy Mandell’s Gallery

Despite being John Sell Cotman’s brother-in-law and President of the Norwich Society of Artists, John Thirtle (1777-1839) joined Ladbrooke in forming the three-year Secession. Tuberculosis inhibited his open air painting and his output was limited yet he is still considered one of the finest watercolourists of the Norwich School [1]. 

Riverside-Norwich-Watercolour-48x66cm-1.jpg

Riverside Norwich, by John Thirtle. Courtesy Mandell’s Gallery, Norwich

Magdalen St 26 Thirtle House to 34 view N [0880] 1936-04-12.jpg

Thirtle House 26 Magdalen Street (1936) where John Thirtle carried on his business as frame carver, gilder and print seller. The house was pulled down in the late 1930s. ©georgeplunkett.co.uk

Tuberculosis also claimed John Middleton (1827-1856) – a ‘supreme tragedy for the Norwich School’ [1]. Taught by John Berney Crome in Norwich, then by Henry Bright in London, Middleton was a genius who flourished for 10 years before dying aged 29.

IMG_1599.jpg

‘Lynmouth, North Devon’ by John Middleton. From [1].

Middleton’s freely-painted watercolours are fresh and modern; his paintings of water courses seem to me to anticipate the impressionistic river-bed paintings of the great John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), who was born the year that Middleton died.

Alpine-Pool-1907.jpg

‘Alpine Pool 1907’ by John Singer Sargent. Courtesy of http://www.johnsingersargent.org

The demolition of the Norwich Society of Artists’ premises, to make way for the corn exchange, was a major factor in the group’s demise. It had been weakened by the deaths of Crome (1821) and Stannard (1830), then by the forthcoming departure of Cotman to London, but the annual exhibitions had run at a loss for some time and the Society’s members could not resist the severe downturn in the city’s economy. The last exhibition was in 1833 but later generations of Norwich School painters built upon the Society’s legacy throughout the nineteenth century [1].

800px-The_Corn_Exchange,_Norwich.jpg

The Corn Exchange built in 1828 was rebuilt in 1861 and demolished in 1964 when Jarrold’s Department Store extended to occupy the entire block between Exchange Street and what had been Little Cockey Lane. Engraving by James Sillett NWHCM: 1954.138.Todd8.Wymer.108

Dates for your diary  

From the 2nd to the 23rd of November, Mandell’s Gallery in Elm Hill is holding an exhibition of Norwich School Paintings that John Allen’s father, Geoffrey, began to collect in the 1950s. Unmissable for followers of the Norwich School.

Bright.jpg

This small painting by Henry Bright plus 12 of his drawings will be featured in the exhibition. Courtesy of Mandell’s Gallery

The portrait of John Crome by John Opie RA (‘The Cornish Wonder’), at top, records the friendship between these artists brokered by collector Thomas Harvey. Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery has just acquired Opie’s double portrait of his celebrated wife, Amelia [15], which is now on public view. Afterwards, take a squiz at the Norwich School paintings in the Colman Galleries.

amelia double 960.jpg

Courtesy of Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery

©2019 Reggie Unthank

Thanks: I am grateful to John Allen and Rachel Allen of Mandell’s Gallery, Elm Hill, Norwich;  Dr Francesca Vanke, Senior Curator, Norwich Museums; and Linda Martin of the Norfolk Heritage Centre.

Sources

  1. Josephine Walpole (1997). Art and Artists of the Norwich School. Pub: Antique Collectors’ Club
  2. Anna Green (2013). The Norwich School of Artists. In, A Vision of England: Paintings of the Norwich School, edited by Georgia Bottinelli. Pub: Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service.
  3. https://colonelunthanksnorwich.com/2019/08/15/going-dutch-the-norwich-strangers/
  4. https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/jan-van-kessel-iii-amsterdam-1641-1680-1911613-details.aspx
  5. Harold Day (1979). The Norwich School of Painters. Pub: Eastbourne Fine Art.
  6. Andrew Moore (2013) Origins and Equals. In, A Vision of England: Paintings of the Norwich School, edited by Georgia Bottinelli. Pub: Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service.
  7. William Cosmo Monkhouse (1888). Crome, John (1768-1821). Dictionary of National Biography 1885-1890 vol 13. See https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Crome,_John_(1768-1821)_(DNB00)
  8. https://colonelunthanksnorwich.com/2016/02/17/two-east-anglian-artists/
  9. Giorgia Bottinelli (2013). City and Country. In, A Vision of England: Paintings of the Norwich School, edited by Georgia Bottinelli. Pub: Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service.
  10. Geoffrey R Searle (2014). Pub: ‘Miles Edmund Cotman (1810-1858)’. Lasse Press, Norwich.
  11. John Young (1989). ‘A Cotman Drawing of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital’. The Norfolk and Norwich Institute of Medical Education Journal vol 7, pp37-39.
  12. https://colonelunthanksnorwich.com/tag/norwich-red/
  13. https://colonelunthanksnorwich.com/2018/10/15/the-norwich-way-of-death/
  14. Giorgia Bottinelli (2013). Fame and Fortune. In, A Vision of England: Paintings of the Norwich School, edited by Georgia Bottinelli. Pub: Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service.
  15. https://colonelunthanksnorwich.com/2017/03/15/three-norwich-women/

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Cotman & Squirrell

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by reggie unthank in Art, Decorative Arts

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

John Sell Cotman, Leonard Squirrell, The Norwich School of Artists

Whenever I visited Norwich Castle Museum I always made a point of seeing John Sell Cotman’s ‘The Marl Pit’ in the section devoted to the Norwich School, but for several years it has been missing. After enquiring about its whereabouts I was given an appointment to see it in storage at the adjacent Shirehall Study Centre. Watercolour is a fugitive medium so nowadays The Marl Pit is only exhibited in the (dimmed) light of day for three months at a time.

Cotman_TheMarlpit_New2.jpg

John Sell Cotman, The Marl Pit ca 1809-10 ©Norfolk Museums Service (Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery)

 

Cotman employed a limited palette with typical ‘Cotman Blue’ skies. His watercolours were composed of patches of colour built up in layers by placing different values of the same hue, one on top of the other, once the underpainting was quite dry. These textured blocks of colour were simplified, with little detail to mar the effect and it is perhaps this geometry, this massing of interlocking shapes that appeals to the modern eye. Cotman introduced drama by juxtaposing darks and lights and carefully controlling the edges.

He often used animals to provide scale as well as counterpoints of light against dark (and vice versa) as seen here where the cows are outlined against the cloud.  The sheep, almost a reflection of the cows above, are about the same size but are drawn towards the viewer by dabs of red.

The power of red crops up later in the well-known spat between Turner and Constable. On varnishing day of the Royal Academy’s 1832 Exhibition Turner came in and surveyed his own seascape. He quickly transformed it by painting a buoy with a dab of red then departed, leaving Constable to say,”He has been here and fired a gun”.

When driving across the Carrow Bridge I often look up Carrow Hill to see the Black Tower on the medieval city walls, so strongly reminiscent of the dark rectangle on top of the cliff in Cotman’s Marl Pit.

BlackTower3.jpg

Left: The Marl Pit (detail). Right: The Black Tower, Carrow Hill, Norwich

Updated 6/9/2019: The Marlpit at Whitlingham appears to have been well known to Norwich painters and may be a better candidate. Below is an 1882 painting of Whitlingham Church, Norwich 1822 by Joseph Clover (NWHCM: 1939.141.9). In addition, the Castle Museum holds another painting of ‘Marl Pit at Whitlingham’ , which is attributed to JS Cotman (NWHCM: 1951.235.214) although stylistically is quite unlike the more famous ‘Marl Pit’ above.

‘Whitlingham Church, Norwich 1822’ by Joseph Clover. Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery NWHCM: 1939.141.9 

The early Cotman is illustrated by the painting below of the Greta Bridge made during his travels to Yorkshire: superb draughtsmanship, crisp boundaries between carefully regulated areas of wash, suppression of inessential detail, with controlled blocks of darker colour leading the eye around the picture. The way that the man-made objects (house and bridge) are outlined by darker negative shapes shows Cotman’s control of edges.

Greta Bridge (c) British Museum.jpg

John Sell Cotman. Greta Bridge Yorkshire ca 1805. (c) The Trustees of the British Museum

Cotman was not restricted to the placid rural idyll as this dramatic late  painting of Yarmouth beach illustrates. His colours are now denser and objects are less ‘blocky’, less clearly separated, as he literally begins to push the boundaries between them. As any amateur watercolourist knows you take your life into your hands when ‘going back in’ to a watercolour painting; but the addition of a medium like gum arabic (some say a paste made from wheat or even rice flour) seems to have allowed him to manipulate the still-wet paint with a rag or dry brush as can be seen at the right-hand edge of the dark and threatening cloud.

Cotman_Storm-on-Yarmouth-Beachx600.jpg

John Sell Cotman. Storm on Yarmouth Beach 1831 (c) Norfolk Museums Service (Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery)

Cotman’s experimentalism reveals itself in the painting of a Woodland Stream. Working on a surface briskly covered with probably no more than two colours he seems to have moved the surface by rubbing it with a rag, as can seen from the swirling marks in the foliage to the right. Form is given to the trees and reeds by ‘lifting out’; water applied with a fine brush is blotted to leave highlights. The freedom of this painting contrasts with the tight control displayed in Greta Bridge.

Cotman_Woodland_stream1.jpg

John Sell Cotman. Woodland Stream, undated. (c) Norfolk Museums Service (Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery)

Below, another densely-pigmented watercolour from the 1830s shows the darker side of the Romantic vision. Again, the boundaries are more fluid, the wet blue paint ragged to produce a deliberately fictional sky.

Cotman_a figure in a boat on a river.jpg

John Sell Cotman ca 1830. A Figure in a Boat on a River. (c) Norfolk Museums Service (Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery)

The painting is low key, blue dominates, the whole effect sufficiently sombre to anticipate the Isle of the Dead by the Swiss Symbolist painter, Arnold Böcklin …

Bocklin.jpg

Arnold Bocklin 1883. Isle of the Dead (Third version). Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin.

Since the Greta Bridge period, Cotman had been criticised for his depiction of trees in both oil and watercolour. As a sensitive – probably depressive – man he was disturbed by this for as the picture below shows, he had made numerous studies of trees and foliage. To the modern eye it is hard to see how his contemporaries could have taken exception to Cotman’s rendering of trees yet the critic of The Norwich Mercury could write:

“… we regret to find that it [‘Trees at Kimberley’] is in this instance as unintelligible to the virtuosi as to the public. We were wholly unable to catch the effect” [1].

Cotman trees.jpg

John Sell Cotman 1805. Trees near the Greta River. Oil on canvas. The Hickman Bacon Collection

About ten years ago, in an antique fair in Southwold, I came across an engraving by the Suffolk artist Leonard Russell Squirrell (1893-1979). I had not heard of this artist previously and muttered to my wife that his trees looked like Cotman’s. In one of those rare moments of theatre (in fact, the only moment of theatre) at an antique fair the dealer reached beneath the counter and showed me a book that suggested these two artists might somehow be connected.

Josephine Walpole1.jpg

Leonard Squirrell: the Last of the Norwich School, by Josephine Walpole [1]

In her book  Josephine Walpole suggests that Squirrell continued the tradition of the Norwich School. Like Cotman, Leonard Squirrell was an excellent draughtsman. He  painted mainly East Anglian scenes in oil or watercolour but he was also a virtuoso etcher and engraver. The ‘Cotmanesque’ picture I had seen was a dry point engraving in which the image was scratched directly onto the copper plate with a needle.

Rocquebrune1 .jpg

Leonard Squirrell. Rocquebrune Castle and the Monte Carlo Road, ca 1928.

In contrast to the inevitably linear effect of dry point engraving Squirrell also made masterful aquatints – a medium that lends itself to the massing of tones  [2]. Using this technique the copper plate is covered with a granular resin that gives a softer texture to the acid-etched surface. The resulting dramatic tonal effects can be seen in this print of Wymondham Abbey Church.

wymondham abbey1.jpg

Leonard Squirrell 1925. Aquatint, Wymondham Abbey Church.

But perhaps the most striking effect is produced in the mezzotint. In this technique the polished copper plate is laboriously prepared by being ‘rocked’ all over with a toothed tool. The burred, ink-retaining surface is then scraped away to various degrees to produce lighter areas that retain less ink. As Leonard Squirrell said, “The characteristic quality of the mezzotint is the richness of the dark areas and the soft edges of the toned spaces“[2].

Needham Market.jpg

Leonard Squirrell 1923. Mezzotint, The High Mill, Needham Market. [Awarded the Silver Medal at the International Exhibition at Los Angeles].

With the mill at the top and the lightly-shaded animals below, thrown into relief against the dark wagon, Squirrell – who had a deep knowledge of Cotman’s work – would certainly have been mindful of ‘The Marlpit’.

Sources

  1. Walpole, Josephine. (1993). Leonard Squirrell: The Last of the Norwich School?    Pub. Antique Collectors’ Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk.
  2. Walpole, Josephine. (1983). Leonard Squirrell: Etchings and Engravings. Pub. Baron Publishing Ltd, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

I am grateful to Rosy Gray of the Norfolk Museums Service, Shirehall, Norwich for kindly arranging for me to see Cotman’s ‘The Marlpit’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Posts

  • The United Friars: Charity and Enquiry in the Age of Reason
  • Plans for a Fine City
  • The third Unthank book (‘Back Stories) now published
  • The new Colonel Unthank’s Norwich book #3
  • Female Suffrage in Norwich

Recent Comments

reggie unthank on Plans for a Fine City
reggie unthank on The Nursery Fields of Eat…
armypal on Plans for a Fine City
Joseph Webb on The Nursery Fields of Eat…
Colman’s Revis… on The Plains of Norwich

Archives

  • April 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • July 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015

Categories

  • Aesthetic Movement
  • Amelia Opie
  • Art
  • Art Nouveau
  • Arts and Crafts
  • Decorative Arts
  • James Minns carver
  • Linnean Society
  • Norwich architect
  • Norwich Banking
  • Norwich buildings
  • Norwich Department Stores
  • Norwich history
  • Norwich libraries
  • Norwich maps
  • Norwich parks
  • Norwich School of Painters
  • Norwich streets
  • Paston Letters
  • River Wensum history
  • Shutter Telegraph
  • Sir Thomas Browne
  • Stained Glass
  • The Royal Society
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • The United Friars: Charity and Enquiry in the Age of Reason
  • Plans for a Fine City
  • The third Unthank book (‘Back Stories) now published
  • The new Colonel Unthank’s Norwich book #3
  • Female Suffrage in Norwich

Recent Comments

reggie unthank on Plans for a Fine City
reggie unthank on The Nursery Fields of Eat…
armypal on Plans for a Fine City
Joseph Webb on The Nursery Fields of Eat…
Colman’s Revis… on The Plains of Norwich

Archives

  • April 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • July 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015

Categories

  • Aesthetic Movement
  • Amelia Opie
  • Art
  • Art Nouveau
  • Arts and Crafts
  • Decorative Arts
  • James Minns carver
  • Linnean Society
  • Norwich architect
  • Norwich Banking
  • Norwich buildings
  • Norwich Department Stores
  • Norwich history
  • Norwich libraries
  • Norwich maps
  • Norwich parks
  • Norwich School of Painters
  • Norwich streets
  • Paston Letters
  • River Wensum history
  • Shutter Telegraph
  • Sir Thomas Browne
  • Stained Glass
  • The Royal Society
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • The United Friars: Charity and Enquiry in the Age of Reason
  • Plans for a Fine City
  • The third Unthank book (‘Back Stories) now published
  • The new Colonel Unthank’s Norwich book #3
  • Female Suffrage in Norwich

Recent Comments

reggie unthank on Plans for a Fine City
reggie unthank on The Nursery Fields of Eat…
armypal on Plans for a Fine City
Joseph Webb on The Nursery Fields of Eat…
Colman’s Revis… on The Plains of Norwich

Archives

  • April 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • July 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015

Categories

  • Aesthetic Movement
  • Amelia Opie
  • Art
  • Art Nouveau
  • Arts and Crafts
  • Decorative Arts
  • James Minns carver
  • Linnean Society
  • Norwich architect
  • Norwich Banking
  • Norwich buildings
  • Norwich Department Stores
  • Norwich history
  • Norwich libraries
  • Norwich maps
  • Norwich parks
  • Norwich School of Painters
  • Norwich streets
  • Paston Letters
  • River Wensum history
  • Shutter Telegraph
  • Sir Thomas Browne
  • Stained Glass
  • The Royal Society
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. It's free, no junk.

Join 4,682 other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • The United Friars: Charity and Enquiry in the Age of Reason
  • Plans for a Fine City
  • The third Unthank book (‘Back Stories) now published
  • The new Colonel Unthank’s Norwich book #3
  • Female Suffrage in Norwich
  • Norfolk Rood Screens
  • Norwich Guides: Ancient and Modern
  • Chapel in the Fields
  • Noël Spencer’s Norwich
  • Georgian Norwich
  • Cecil Upcher: soldier and architect
  • Sculptured Monuments #2
  • Sculptured Monuments
  • Madness
  • New Book: Colonel Unthank’s Norwich
  • AF Scott, Architect:conservative or pioneer?
  • Norwich Department Stores
  • Revolutionary Norwich
  • Parson Woodforde and the Learned Pig
  • A postscript on Eaton Nurseries
  • The Nursery Fields of Eaton
  • Vanishing Plains
  • Parson Woodforde goes to market
  • Norwich, City of the Plains
  • The Plains of Norwich
  • Twentieth Century Norwich Buildings
  • Thomas Browne’s World
  • The angel’s bonnet
  • After the Norwich School
  • A few of my favourite buildings
  • James Minns, carver
  • The Norwich Banking Circle
  • Behind Mrs Opie’s medallion
  • Norwich: shaped by fire
  • Street Names #2
  • Street names
  • The Norwich School of Painters
  • Going Dutch: The Norwich Strangers
  • The Captain’s Parks
  • Norfolk’s Napoleonic Telegraph
  • Catherine Maude Nichols
  • The Norfolk Botanical Network
  • City Hall Doors # 2
  • City Hall Doors # 1
  • Late Extra: The Norwich Pantheon
  • Pleasure Gardens
  • The absent Dukes of Norfolk
  • Nairn on Norwich
  • The Norwich Way of Death
  • Norwich: City of Trees
  • The Bridges of Norwich Part 2: Around the bend
  • The Bridges of Norwich 1: The blood red river
  • Norwich knowledge (libraries)
  • Street furniture: palimpsests
  • Putting Norwich on the map
  • Clocks
  • Faces
  • The Norwich coat of arms
  • New book: Colonel Unthank and the Golden Triangle
  • The Pastons in Norwich
  • Reggie through the underpass
  • Gildencroft and Psychogeography
  • Bullards’ Brewery
  • Post-medieval Norwich churches
  • The end of the Unthank mystery?
  • Barnard Bishop and Barnards
  • Public art, private meanings
  • Colonel Unthank rides again
  • Three Norwich Women
  • The flamboyant Mr Skipper

Archives

  • April 2023
  • January 2023
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • July 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

previous posts

  • About
  • Colonel Unthank’s Norwich #2
  • Contact
  • Latest Colonel Unthank’s Norwich Book #3
  • Posts
  • Unthank Book #1

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • COLONEL UNTHANK'S NORWICH
    • Join 679 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • COLONEL UNTHANK'S NORWICH
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: