Archive: SDK Sydney Decimus Kitson Archive
Date: 1911
Reference Number: SDK/1/3/3/4
Description
Memoir of John sell Cotman by James Reeve. Published by Jarrold & Sons.
For most of the twentieth century, Cotman was the most widely admired English watercolourist, surpassing even Turner in popularity. This revival owed much to the Norwich collector and Curator of the Norwich Castle Museum, James Reeve (1833-1920), who acquired many works by Cotman and his Norfolk contemporaries. Reeve's contributions to exhibitions in Norwich and in London in 1888-89 re-established Cotman's reputation and attracted the interest of Laurence Binyon, Assistant Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings, who published studies of Cotman in 1897 and 1903. Reeve sold his collection to the British Museum in 1902, making it the foremost public holding of the artist's work.