Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Reference Number: SDK/1/2/1/8
Page: 47 recto
Description
Exhibition of the Oxford Art Society 21 March-20 April 1933, including 17 watercolours by Cotman, with a catalogue by Kitson: cuttings from the Morning Post, 20 March 1933, the Oxford Mail, 20 March 1933, and the Oxford Times, 24 March 1933
Date:
Transcription
The Oxford Art Society
Collection of Cotman Water Colours
Good Work by Members
By Our Art Critic
The Oxford Art Society is holding its 43rd annual exhibition of pictures in the Department of Fine Arts, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from tomorrow - private view today - until April 20.
The special feature this year is a remarkable collection of 17 watercolour drawings by John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), whose life and art are admirably summarised in the catalogue by Mr Sidney D. Kitson, the owner of eight very fine examples.
A long article would not exhaust the interest in this little show of Cotman’s work, to which also come important contributions from Mr. A. Oppé, Mrs. Paul Waterhouse, Mr. Esmond Morse, Mr. V. Reinaecker, Sir C. Sheringham, Mrs .Bickmore, and the Ashmolean Museum, its loan including a haunting view of “A Ruined House”.
Morning Post 20.3.1933.
Art Society’s New Move
The Oxford Art Society, which has its private view today in the studio of the Ashmolean Museum, is making a new departure this year in showing, besides the work of its own members, a number of watercolours by Cotman, the contemporary of Crome and, perhaps, the greatest name in the Noroid [sic] School of Landscape Painters.
The Cotman water-colours will certainly increase the interest of this year’s exhibition, and probably mean a larger number of visitors.
Oxford Mail 20.3.'33
Oxford Art Society Exhibition.
Cotman’s Water-Colours.
Excellent Work by Local Artists.
The 43rd annual exhibition of the Oxford Art Society, which opened at the Department of Fine Arts in the Ashmolean on Monday, well maintains the standard which the Society has set in previous years. This year the special feature is a collection of water-colour drawings by John Sell Cotman, which have been excellently selected to illustrate many of the characteristics of the artist. The collection consists of 17 in all, of which eight have been lent by Mr. S. D. Kitson, two by Mr. V Reinaecker, and others by Mr. A. Oppe, Mrs. Paul Waterhouse, Mr. Edmund Morse, Sir Charles Sherrington, Mrs. Bickmore and the Ashmolean Museum. Notable among them are “Llangollen,” “Lincolnshire Draining Mill,” “Norwich Market Place,” “Distant View of Barnard Castle,” “ St. Peter Mancroft” and “A Ruined House”. Mr. S. D .Kitson is responsible for the admirable account of Cotman’s work in relation to the pictures shown in the exhibition, which appears in the catalogue.
In the drawings contributed by members of the Society and local artists there is no lack of interest, apart from the Cotman collection. The water-colours, and even more the oils, seem to show a definite advance in many respects on those of last year. The miniatures are not so good; the black and white and similar work is still easily the weakest section, though a very fine pencil drawing is shown by Mr. J. R. Merton.
Oxford Times 24.3.'33.