Cotmania. Vol. II. 1927-8

{Newspaper cutting - Eastern Daily Press}

"FROM MY FATHER'S HOUSE AT THORPE."

Such knowledge, for instance, as the whereabouts of the residence of Cotman's father. High up on the right of the door as one enters the Castle Museum gallery hangs Cotman's "View from my father's house at Thorpe." When German air raids threatened us this picture was not deemed worthy of the special precautions provided for some of the others, but to the student and connoisseur it is by far the most interesting exhibit at the Castle. It is, in fact, unique, for in no other public gallery in Europe can one see so fully exposed the preparatory methods which a great painter employs towards the building up of a masterpiece. Here on a warm ground the framework of the design is delicately drawn with a full but fine brush. The colour scheme, alas, is no more than suggested, for it was drawn and signed within six months of Cotman's demise; but half close your eyes, let the imagination work, and it is infinitely suggestive of glorious light and colour. The subject had occupied his attention for some time, for in the British Museum is a carefully amended design for the picture which he manifestly regarded as a superb subject, quite apart from any sentimental or topographical association it might have. In this drawing he deliberately substituted fir trees for the poplars which in reality existed, and which he finally incorporated into the Castle Museum composition. His son, Miles Edmund, lithographed the picture, more or less in facsimile, for the benefit of the widow, and a splendid version of the same subject, in body-colour on brown paper, by J. J. Cotman is before me as I write. Each of the Cotman versions is definitely and categorically entitled, "View from my father's house, " and Stannard's large picture immediately below it at the Castle shows in its distance the point of view from which it must have been painted, so in this respect at least things are made easy for the inquirer. The picture plainly shows Thorpe Hall and other existing buildings, but the foreground of terraces, balustrades, peacocks, and other fruits of fancy, are puzzling to the topographer who insists on photographic accuracy.
And where are the poplars? A search in back numbers of the "Norwich Mercury" only elicits an obituary notice of "Mr Edmund Cotman of Thorpe." "White's Norfolk, " and other early directories, are equally exasperating. Which, then, exactly was the house? A visit to the Free Library revealed in the Thorpe portfolio a series of early photographs recording not only the existence and subsequent felling of the two poplars, but successive and substantial alterations to the adjacent houses. Tea on the terrace of the "Town House" produces an impression that one is getting "very warm" in this game of hide-and-seek, but only very warm. Further research, however, results in the discovery that this house belonged, about 1840, to an eminent and presumably opulent silk merchant, Davey by name. What more natural than that Edmund Cotman should retire from the city and take up his residence in the next house to his confrere? A visit to the garden turns impression into conviction, and conviction into certainty when one learns that this block of buildings was known, within living memory, as "The Terrace." This visit, prompted by mere supposition, or more or less intelligent anticipation of events, proves to be conclusive, for, by a happy chance, I have in my possession a series of letters from Arthur Dixon to J. J. Cotman in 1834. Between these two there existed a very close friendship, and Dixon more than once mentions his visits to "The Terrace," whither he periodically repaired that he might keep J. J. posted up regarding the health and welfare of his grandparents. I like to feel that Mr. James Reeve, who gave me these letters, would be delighted to know that they conclusively prove what I felt when I stepped on to the balcony which adjoins the western end of the Town House, that, in fact, I was on what for me is hallowed ground, for there before me, making due allowance for very slight but most instructive artistic license in the foreground, was John Sell Cotman's "View from my father's house at Thorpe."
A. B.
<(Arthur Batchelor)>
<Eastern Daily Press.
25.X.'25>