Explorations in the footsteps of Turner, Cotman, Ruskin and others with Professor David Hill
This is the seventh in a series of articles that explores a group of works that reflect John Sell Cotman’s ambitions for his artistic life in Norwich. In part 6 we considered a drawing that appeared on the market in March 2021. He we continue that theme by examining the full troop of musketeers, arquebusiers … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #7 More Musketeers
This is the sixth in a series of articles that explores a group of works that reflect John Sell Cotman’s ambitions for his artistic life in Norwich. Here we consider a drawing that appeared on the market in March 2021. It dates from the early days of Cotman's second attempt to establish a successful studio … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #6 Musketeer after Jacob De Gheyn
This is the fifth article in a series that began three years ago with a rediscovered watercolour of ‘The Student’ by John Sell Cotman. That led to the consideration of several works that embodied ambitions that Cotman had for his artistic life in Norwich, and his eventual disappointment. Here we consider a drawing that appeared … Continue reading John Sell Cotman: A Harbour for the Soul #5 Van Dyck Study
This article considers the fourteenth 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: #14 Tolethorpe Mill, near Little Casterton, 1828
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
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
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