Natural Landscape

(via The Outline of Art) William Orpen writes:

In 1825, when he was again living in Norwich, Cotman was elected as Associate of the Water-color Society in London, and from that year was a constant contributor to the Society’s exhibitions; but though his work was known and respected both in London and Norwich, the genius of Cotman was never recognized in his lifetime nor indeed for many years after his death. The struggle to make a living began to tell on his nerves and health, and it was in the hope of giving him some ease by assuring him a regular income that his steadfast friend Dawson Turner, the antiquary, succeeded in getting Cotman appointed in 1834 as drawing master at King’s College School, then in the Strand. Removing to London in view of this appointment, Cotman settled himself at 42 Hunter Street, Brunswick Square, but the change seemed to do him more harm than good. His health gradually declined, and the nervous depression to which he was a victim became more and more severe till in the end his mind became slightly unhinged. His eldest son, Miles Edward Cotman (1811-58), a water colorist of moderate ability, succeeded him as drawing-master at King’s College School, and on July 28, 1842, John Sell Cotman died and was quiety buried in the churchyard of St John’s Wood Chapel, close to Lord’s Cricket Ground. How little Cotman was appreciated then was made painfully evident when his remaining oil-paintings and water colors were sold at Christie’s in the following year. Works for which collectors would now gladly pay hundred of pounds hardly realized as many shillings in 1843, and the highest price for a painting by him then obtained was £8 15s; the highest price given for a Cotman water color was £6.

To discover exactly why an artist, afterwards recorgnized to be a genius, is not appreciated in his own lifetime, is never an easy task, but it is certain that many of his contemporaries considered Cotman’s work to be ‘unfinished’ because it had that vigorous breadth which now wins our admiration. Whether we look at an oil painting like his ‘Wherries on the Yare’ or a masterly water color like the ‘Greta Bridge’ at the British Museum, we cannot fail to be impressed by the grandeur which the artist has given to his rendering of the scene by his subordination of detail and suppression of all that is irrelevant.

Cotman took a big view of Nature and the breadth and simplicity of his masses materially help to give his pictures, whether in oil or water color, a monumental majesty unsurpassed even by his great contemporaries.