John Sell
Cotman

COTMAN, John sell (Cotman, John Sell). 1782, Norwich - 1842, London. English landscape painter, primarily a watercolorist. Worked in Norwich and London, travelled across England and Normandy. One of the most notable masters of so-called Norwich school, who strove for a truthful representation of mother nature.

1782, Norwich — 1842, London. English painter and graphic artist. Along with Chrome has become the most prominent figure in the Norwich school. Came from a family of a prosperous merchant. In 1798 came to London and started working for a famous publisher R. Ackerman. The following year, I met Dr. T. Monroe, the art patron and collector, and became a member of the circle of artists whom he patronized. From 1800 to 1805 systematically made trips to Wales and Yorkshire. In 1803 he became friends with the family Chomli from Brandsby Hall, the neighborhood which inspired the artist to the now known of his compositions. In those years formed the original analytical style of his early period. Cotman builds a landscape with large areas of color, crystallize volumes and identifying the structure of the composition. Spatial depth in his works is based on almost geometrically simplified plans, informing the infinity motif as architectonic. Mirroring the immobility of his ponds and rivers filled with some crystal music, but in General, early landscapes are often desolate, contemplative and melancholy (Bridge Greta. Yorkshire, in 1805, the British Museum in London; the Shaded pond, Edinburgh, NAT. gallery of Scotland; the Aqueduct of Chirk, approx. 1804, London, the Victoria and albert Museum; the New bridge in Durham, CA. 1805-1806, Norwich, private collection). Works of this period to some extent was ahead of its time, predating the artistic quest of Cezanne.

Cotman regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1800 to 1806. In 1807 he returned to Norwich, where he had a solo exhibition at the Norwich society of artists, whose President he became in 1811. In 1812 he moved to Yarmouth, where it has awakened interest in the old architecture. In 1816-1822 made sketches of the architectural monuments of Norfolk, Suffolk and Normandy. In 1838, has released a collection of etchings of the Liber Studiorum (48 sheets), which occupy an important place in the history of English printmaking. In 1834 he began to teach drawing at the Royal College in London. Art Cotman evolved under the influence of Turner. His painting became more pasty and less original (Drop-gate, 1826, London, Tate gallery).