This exhibition is organized and curated by Michael Thornton-Smith.

All works in the exhibition are selected from a private collection.


British Landscape Printmaking 1710-1880 is the story of the development and flowering of the Romantic movement and its engagement with the landscape. Printmaking became a vehicle for many artists who were constantly searching for new methods of personal expression in graphic media. This exhibition will show a progression from a formalized, arcadian view of the landscape to a more passionate involvement, with the rise of the Romantic Era and the depiction of the landscape of Great Britain and Western Europe. It is also within this time period we see the advent of the Industrial Revolution which was to produce one of the most fundamental changes in society; both urban and rural. To many it was seen as the beginnings of a commodification of the environment and the response by some of these artists was to disseminate an appreciation of nature and spirit of place. There will also be an attempt to bring into focus similarities with the dramatic changes and challenges that face us today. The story of British topographical printmaking in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is a story of transition in both techniques of the medium, engagement with the landscape and responses to dramatic changes in the environment.

The painters of this era turned to graphic media, either working independently or collaborating closely with professional engravers to create some of the most compelling and immediate artistic statements of the period. This exhibition will include engraving, etching, soft-ground etching, aquatint, lithography and mezzotint, there will be a section that describes the techniques of each process.

British Landscape Printmaking features the work of artists - J.M.W.Turner, John Constable, Thomas Girtin, Samuel Palmer, and "Norwich School" members John Sell Cotman and John Crome


List of Artists


Johannes Kip

Richard Parkes Bonington

Thomas Shotter Boys

Nathaniel and Samuel Buck

John Constable *

John Sell Cotman

Miles Edmund Cotman

John Middleton

John Ruskin

John Robert Cozens

John Crome

George Cuitt

William Hogarth

Thomas Daniell

William Daniell

Henry Davy

John Plimmer

David Charles Read

Jacob George Strutt

Joseph Farington *

Thomas Gainsborough

Philip James de Loutherbourg

The Reverend William Gilpin *

Thomas Girtin

Francis Seymour Haden

James Duffield Harding

Thomas Hearne *

Thomas Christopher Hofland *

Edward Lear

John Martin

Francis Nicholson

Samuel Palmer

Samuel Prout

William Pyne

Richard Redgrave

George Fennel Robson *

Thomas Rowlandson

Paul Sandby

Thomas Creswick

William Blake

William Bell Scott

George and John Smith

Joseph Stannard

J M W Turner

John Varley *

Richard Wilson *


* Denotes after


Saturday, May 7, 2011

THE NORWICH SCHOOL


The Norwich School of the early nineteen hundreds is a rare instance of a group of provincial painters forming a school. Norwich had a thriving industrial base so therefore had a benefactor contingent to support these artists. Known originally as the Norwich Society of Artists its two main figures were John Crome and John Sell Cotman. They also had a number of  friends colleagues and followers who found inspiration in the beautiful Norfolk countryside. This society also included Joseph Stannard, John Thirtle, James Stark and Robert Dixon.  The character of this gathering of artists and amateurs happened in 1803 through evening meetings, exhibitions and sketching parties. They soon achieved a collective identity which made it possible to regard them as a school. Although they developed no common style they did influence each other and in this respect created a stronger cohesiveness as a group. The founder and leader and father figure in the early days was John Crome.
  When John Crome died in 1821, John Sell Cotman became its leading exponent with his very recognizable and idiosyncratic style especially in his masterful watercolors. Between the years 1810 and 1824 Cotman produced some of the finest work to come from any member of the Norwich School. He was the only figure of the school to travel extensively, initially on tours with Thomas Girtin to North Wales and then Yorkshire but later to Normandy where he produced two sets of etchings; two of which are represented here, ‘ Castle Falaise’ and ‘Chateau Gaillard’ are amongst the finest. From the Welsh visit he produced the soft-ground etchings ‘ Cader Idris’ and ‘Tan-y-Blwch’ ; these two examples have a plein-air feel to them. Indeed it is in these etchings that he captures the qualities of his most vivacious pencil drawings. Robert Dixon and Joseph Stannard both portrayed local Norfolk scenes, rural cottage life from the former and coastal life from the latter.



John Crome  



John Crome 1768 - 1821, Composition, Sandy Road through Woodland, 1816  Etching.



John Crome 1768 - 1821,  At Bawburgh 1813  Etching.



John Crome 1768 - 1821,  Rustic Road with Barn, 1813, Etching.



John Sell Cotman  



John Sell Cotman 1782 - 1842,  Cader Idris 1808,  Soft-ground etching.



John Sell Cotman  1782 - 1842, Tan-Y-Bwlch, North Wales ,1808  Soft-ground etching.



John Sell Cotman  1782 - 1842,  On the Yare, Norfolk, 1820  Soft-ground etching.



John Sell Cotman  1782 - 1842,  Chateau Gaillard, Normandy, 1822  Etching.



 John Sell Cotman 1782 - 1842, Castle Falaise, Normandy,1822 Etching.


Joseph Stannard


Joseph Stannard  1797 - 1830, On the Beach at Mundesley, 1827, Etching.


Robert Dixon



Robert Dixon 1780 - 1815,  Cottages at Wymondham, 1810, Soft-ground etching.


John Middleton



John Middleton  1826 - 1856, View at Gunton Park, 1845, Etching.


Miles Edmund Cotman


Miles Edmund Cotman  1810 - 1858, View at Surlingham, 1838, Etching


Henry Davy



Henry Davy 1793 - 1865,  North Gateway, Mettingham Castle, Suffolk, 1810, Etching

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