Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
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
This is the second 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, and here I explore some of the related works identified during my research into the Leeds Art Gallery collection of Cotman drawings. The watercolour is related … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #2
This is the first instalment of an article presenting a recently rediscovered watercolour by John Sell Cotman. This appeared at auction on 9 December 2014 where it was catalogued as ‘Circle of John Sell Cotman’ and sold under the title of ‘The Student’. At the time of the sale I was just beginning work on … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #1
This is the second part of an article exploring Cotman's association with St Benet's Abbey, Norfolk. In 1811 Cotman committed himself to a major series of etchings of Norfolk antiquarian subjects. The work was to become his primary preoccupation for the next five or six years, and he threw himself into it with several excursions … Continue reading Cotman’ and St Benet’s Abbey: Part 2
This is a further instalment in a series that retraces Cotman’s footsteps through his native county of Norfolk. Here we visit the isolated site of St Benet’s Abbey. This stands in a marshy plain near the junction of the rivers Ant and Bure about ten miles directly ENE of Norwich, but much further by road, … Continue reading Cotman and St Benet’s Abbey, Norfolk: Part 1
On 10 May 2015, I posted a short article identifying one of the Cotman sketches at Leeds Art Gallery as a memorandum of a painting by Turner, ‘Helvoetsluis’, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832. It was touching to discover some new documentation of Cotman’s admiration for Turner. Then, just recently, a group of seven … Continue reading Cotman and Turner’s ‘Van Tromp’: A newly identified study of 1832
This is the second in my intended series of reports on sites drawn by John Sell Cotman in his native county of Norfolk. A recent mini-tour of sites around King’s Lynn allowed me to take in the ocean-liner sized church of Terrington St Clements, about five miles north of Tilney All Saints, the subject of … Continue reading Cotman’s Norfolk: #2 Terrington St Clement’s Church, near King’s Lynn
This article focuses on the wonderful church of Tilney All Saints in the farmlands of West Norfolk about ten miles from King’s Lynn. This provided him with material for a fine early watercolour now at San Francisco Fine Art Museums, but never before (I believe) reproduced or discussed in the Cotman literature. This is the … Continue reading Cotman’s Norfolk: #1 Tilney All Saints, near King’s Lynn
I am fortunate to have been appointed to work through the whole collection of over eight hundred drawings by Cotman at Leeds Art Gallery. This will be a three-year project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation culminating in 2017-18 in an online catalogue and an exhibition. The Leeds Collection of Cotman comprises principally of a … Continue reading The Leeds Cotman Project: #1: A Study of Turner’s ‘Helvoetsluis’ at the R.A., 1832
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