Cotmania. Vol. II. 1927-8

{diary entries}
marriage of J.S.C to Anne Miles in 1809.

Mrs Carman says she remembers her mother saying that once ‘Uncle Cotman’ came to stay with them at their farm outside Gunton Park. Just as the family’s favourite old hunter was being taken to the knacker, J.S.C said he would paint its portrait before it went. It was raining & Lucy Hicks held the gig-umbrella over her Uncle’s head, as he sketched the horse in the paddock. Mrs Carman gave Arthur Batchelor in 1924 a pencil drawing signed ‘L.H’ drawn on the back of part of J.S.C’s ‘Castle Rising’ etching. <The oil painting (16 x 21½) finally reached me from Boswell’s on 17.12.27.>

Visited Manchester Oct: 10.’27 <& March 17. ’28.> Whitworth Institute has 8 good watercolours by J.S.C –

(1) York from the River, with St. Mary’s wall & Angle tower in foreground: towers of Minster behind. Signed “J.S.Cotman 1804”. Monotone [[c. 9 x 18]] 8⅞ x [[18¾?]]17. Excellent quality.
(2) Superb study of blue-green trees with sandy yellow foreground. “Harrow, Middlesex, July 1805” in J.S.C’s writing at bottom of drawing. [[c. 17 x 12]] 14 x 11 – given by Anderson. 1916 ([G as?] reproduction [Walker's] catalogue)
(3) ‘Study of trees’ the drawing for which mine was a trial. Exhibited Tate Gallery 1922. (photo) Colour is much the same. 16⅛ x 12½. Signed, bottom right, ‘J.S.Cotman’
(4) ‘River Scene with Cattle’ comparable with ‘The Ploughed Field’. deep blue water (photo) c 1805-1808. 6⅞ x 14⅜. Exhibited Tate Gallery 1922.
(5) On the River Sarthe. Alençon in distance. blue & yellow: undistinguished. c 1824. c. 7 x 12. unsigned.
(6) ‘Off Portsmouth’. Should be ‘Off Yarmouth’. Nelson’s column, Parish Church & Windmills seen on shore. Competent. c 7 x 12.
(7) St Martin’s Church. Cologne. (Street Scene) Watercolour & reed pen 9½ x 12. (c. 1830) bought 1905.
(8) Wreckage in a rough sea. (A spar, a seagull & a stormy sea. Very good & imaginative c 1825) Watercolour 13½ x 6