The Cotman Collection | 84

Cotmania. Vol. IV. 1929-30

Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/2/1/4
Page: 29 verso


  • Description

    Clipping of an article in which there is a transcription of Kitson's introduction to the paintings at Crown Point. This includes a brief summary of the Norwich School of Artists, a small introduction to Turner, and a great deal of information about Cotman; a brief life history and information about which paintings to look out for.

    Clipping of an article in which there is a transcription of Kitson's introduction to the paintings at Crown Point. This includes a brief summary of the Norwich School of Artists, a small introduction to Turner, and a great deal of information about Cotman; a brief life history and information about which paintings to look out for.

    Date:

  • Transcription

    THE COLLECTION OF WORKS BY THE NORWICH SCHOOL AT CROWN POINT.
    After the visits, members had the opportunity of taking tea with the Misses Colman at Carrow Abbey ad of seeing the remains of the Benedictine Nunnery which are incorporated into the house and gardens, or of partaking of the hospitality of the Lord Lieutenant or Norfolk, Mr Russell J. Colman, at Crown Point. There Mr Sydney Kitson (Honorary Secretary, RIBA) gave a short account of the Norwich School of Painters, with special reference to the examples in the Crown Point Collection. Mr Kitson said:-
    "The Norwich School, which arose at the beginning of the nineteenth century, is the only instance in England since the Reformation of a band of local painters working in their native city and depending upon a local market for the sale of their work. The existence of this School may be attributed in part to economic causes. From 1750 and for 30 years onwards Norwich was the wealthy centre of the wool trade. A new middle class was evolved which demanded small pictures for its homes, as distinct from the large canvases which the London artists were producing for the country houses of the landed class. In response to this demand a school of local painters arose - descendants, perhaps, of the men who painted the Norfolk screens in the fifteenth century. Of the score or more artists of the Norwich School, two men were of genius- John Crome and John Sell Cotman. But they were born a generation too late. The discovery of steam as a motive for power looms drove the wool trade elsewhere. So when the Norwich artists reached the producing stage they were largely without patrons, and they were obliged to become drawing masters in order to live. Yet they held exhibitions in Norwich from 1805 onwards, and continued to produce work, much of which remained unsold.
    "Mr Russell Colman has gathered at Crown Point a comprehensive collection of the works of the Norwich School. Not only are the two great giants fully represented, but also the lesser men- Ladbrooke, Thirtle, Stark, Vincent, Stannard, and the rest. Crome, the founder and rugged natural genius of the School, occupies a prominent place here with his oil paintings, which range from his 'Carrow Abbey' to his 'Postwick Grove.' There is also a collection of his rare watercolours, which are unequal, but of full interest.
    The wide field of Cotman's genius can be seen at Crown Point as it can be seen nowhere else. His work has qualities of design, pattern and balance which make an especial appeal to architects. Going to London as a boy of 16, at the end of the eighteenth century, Cotman quickly assimilated the developments in the art of water colour painting which Girtin and Turner - his seniors by seven years - were then making. From this groundwork he soon evolved a style of his own, in which flat washes were used in a mosaic of pattern, in a method comparable with the technique of the old Chinese and Japanese drawings. This admirable phase of Cotman's work is well represented here - especially by 'The Marl Pit' and the "Hell Cauldron at the Greta.'
    "He returned to Norwich. But such drawings as his were too new and original to be appreciated at that time. He therefore became a drawing master and turned out endless drawing copies for his students. There-by his style became to some extent hardened - from want of a constantly renewed reference to nature. Ten years of bondage at Yarmouth followed, when Cotman was mainly occupied in drawing churches in Norfolk and Normandy for a local banker - one of the amateurs who were responsible for the Gothic Revival. Yet these architectural drawings have an emotional quality such as only a great imaginative landscape artist could impart. Cotman came back to Norwich for another ten years of drift and disappointment. During these years, however, he produced many lovely seascapes - such as 'After the Storm' and 'The Needles.' His last eight years were spent in London.
    "All his life this great master of watercolour was also painting intermittently in oil. The National Collections do not show this important phase of his life's work in any adequate way. But here it is possible to appreciate the originality and greatness of Cotman's oil paintings. 'The Waterfall' is one of the most haunting and beautiful pictures in this world.
    "Although endowed with a fineness and austerity of vision such as has been granted to few other artists, Cotman did not possess a corresponding robustness of fibre. Hence his production sometimes falls below his gift. This superb gift of his, however, can be appreciated without any qualifications when looking at such masterpieces as 'The Waterfall' and 'The Marl Pit' at Crown Point."

Clipping of an article in which there is a transcription of Kitson's introduction to the paintings at Crown Point. This includes a brief summary of the Norwich School of Artists, a small introduction to Turner, and a great deal of information about Cotman; a brief life history and information about which paintings to look out for.