John
Crom

One of the leading masters of the Norwich school. His art represents a transitional link between the landscape of the eighteenth century and the romantic era. The son of a wandering weaver. Initially trained as a painter of signboards and painted carriages. He was self-educated, and copied Gainsborough and the small Dutch. His idol was Hobbema. May have been familiar with the works of Rembrandt. A big influence on Chrome also had a watercolor of Wilson. Creatively developed slowly. OK. 1797 began to earn a living as a teacher of drawing. Stood at the origins of the Norwich society of artists (1803), whose President and became in 1808. Exhibited in the city and occasionally in London. The only once left England in 1814, when he visited Paris where he saw masterpieces, taken by Napoleon from the conquered countries.

Chrome played a prominent role in the development of the Norwich school, the main representative of which he was. Have the apprentice of a teacher of painting, he learned by copying works of the Dutch and English landscape painters at local gatherings. In 1792 Crome becomes a teacher of drawing in the same family and accompanied by his pupil during many journeys to England. In 1803 he became a co-founder of the Norwich society of artists, and in 1808 its President. In 1814 Krom goes to Paris to see the Napoleon Museum. Artistic development Chrome was slow and depended heavily on his predecessors. The influence of the English masters, Wilson and Gainsborough, it seems to be predominant in his early works ("Shale career", CA. 1802-1805, London, Gal. Tate); other works ("the lime Kiln", CA. 1805, private collection) marked Dutch influence. In his landscapes of his native Norfolk he seeks to find the light characteristic of the paintings Hobbema and rasdal ("Arlingtonsky forest", 1815, Portsunlight, Gal. Lady pluck;"Port of Yarmouth", until 1812, London, Gal. Tate). At the end of life Chrome up to individual skill in depicting light and air ("Poringland oak", CA. 1818-1820). The Chrome work was not equally equal, but his best works are of the highest craftsmanship. His work is well represented in London (NAT. Gal., Gal. Tate, the Victoria and albert Museum - "the Shaded road") and at the Museum of Norwich ("the Boulevard of the Italians in Paris", 1814).