A Twopeny Portfolio: #20 Founder’s Tomb, Navenby Church, Lincolnshire, 1823.

This article considers the twentieth work of twenty-five bought at Anderson & Garland, Newcastle upon Tyne, 21 March 2017, lot 46 as ‘Various Artists (British 19th Century) Sundry drawings and watercolours, mainly topographical and floral studies, including a grisaille “South Gate, Lynn, Norfolk”, bearing the signature of J.S.Cotman, various sizes, all unframed in a folio.’ … Continue reading A Twopeny Portfolio: #20 Founder’s Tomb, Navenby Church, Lincolnshire, 1823. →

A Twopeny Portfolio: #24 A Bouquet of flowers hand-painted on silk, 1770s?

This article considers the twenty-fourth work of twenty-five bought at Anderson & Garland Ltd, Newcastle upon Tyne, 21 March 2017, lot 46 as Various Artists (British 19th Century) Sundry drawings and watercolours, mainly topographical and floral studies, including a grisaille “South Gate Lynn, Norfolk”, bearing the signature J.S. Cotman, various sizes, all unframed in a … Continue reading A Twopeny Portfolio: #24 A Bouquet of flowers hand-painted on silk, 1770s? →

Cotman, Bloomfield and The Ploughed Field

This article proposes a source for John Sell Cotman’s famous watercolour of ‘The Ploughed Field’ at Leeds Art Gallery. In the online catalogue of the Cotman collection at Leeds http://www.cotmania.org, I describe the watercolour as ‘the exemplar of his turn towards reticence and understatement… the supreme exercise in undemonstrative refinement and subtlety of its time’. … Continue reading Cotman, Bloomfield and The Ploughed Field →

John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #6

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 →

John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #5

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 →

John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #4

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 →

John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm, Part #3

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 →

John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm: Part#2

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 →

John Sell Cotman: Shelter from the Storm Part#1

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 →

John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #4

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 →