Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
This article returns to a subject briefly visited in an article of 10 April 2016 in which I discussed a Turner watercolour of Ben Arthur from near Arrochar. I had not time then to investigate the subject in any detail, but finally last week managed to visit the exact spot. Regular readers will know that … Continue reading Turner and Scotland #2: Loch Lomond from Colonel Lascelles’ monument, 1801
This is the sixth and final instalment recording the recent exhibition of ‘John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm’, held at Leeds Art Gallery, 13 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. Here, we explore the framed works shown in the principal room under the theme of ‘Storm’. Under each caption is a link to a … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #6
This is the fifth instalment of the recent exhibition of ‘John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm’, held at Leeds Art Gallery, 13 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. Here, we explore some of the archival material displayed, and some of the responses made by the contemporary artist, Hondartza Fraga. The core of the Cotman … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #5
This is the fourth instalment recording the recent exhibition of ‘John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm’, held at Leeds Art Gallery, 13 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. Here, we explore the framed works shown in the principal room under the theme of ‘Shelter’. Cotman had a strong sense of the growing philistinism of … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #4
This is the third instalment recording the recent exhibition of ‘John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm’, held at Leeds Art Gallery, 13 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. The main room of the exhibition was devoted to framed works. We divided the display into three main sections, ‘Modernity’, ‘Shelter’ and ‘Storm’ The remainder of … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #3
This is the second instalment recording the recent exhibition of ‘John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm’, held at Leeds Art Gallery, 13 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. One of the key features of the exhibition was the large number of Cotman’s pencil sketches that were on display. Kitson left over eight hundred of … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm: Part#2
Many of you appear to have missed the exhibition of ‘John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm’, held at Leeds Art Gallery, 13 October 2017 to 21 January 2018. This is a shame, since Leeds has one of the finest collections of Cotmans in the world, and this was the first time ever that two … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm Part#1
Sometimes Sublime Sights appear completely out of the blue. The well-known scholar Timothy Wilcox recently sent me a photograph of the watercolour reproduced below. It forms part of an exceptional private collection which Tim is cataloguing for publication in due course. It appears to have been acquired as a Turner by an ancestor of the … Continue reading A newly-identified Val d’Aosta subject by Turner
This is the fourth in a series of articles that began with a rediscovered watercolour of ‘The Student’ by John Sell Cotman. That led to an exploration of the ways in which that composition and various re-iterations reflected the ambitions of Cotman’s artistic life in Norwich, and its Rembrandtian collapse. Here we consider a related … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #4
This is the third instalment of an article presenting a recently rediscovered watercolour of ‘The Student’ by John Sell Cotman. Part 1 described the discovery and identification of the subject. Part 2 explored some of the related works discovered during my research into the Leeds Art Gallery collection of Cotman drawings. Here I examine some … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #3
Sublime Sites 