John Sell Cotman

(b Norwich, 16 May 1782; d London, 24 July 1842). English painter and etcher.

Cotman was born in the parish of St Mary Coslany, Norwich, the son of Edmund Cotman, a hairdresser, later a haberdasher, and Ann Sell. In 1793 he entered Norwich Grammar School as a 'freeplacer'. In 1798 he moved to London, where he worked as an assistant to the publisher Rudolph Ackermann. Following in the footsteps of Turner and Thomas Girtin he joined Dr Monro's 'Academy' in 1799 and became a member of the sketching society that had developed around the personality and talent of Girtin. He exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1800, when he was awarded the large silver palette by the Society of Arts.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Cotman, John Sell (1782-1842). Architect, draughtsman, landscape and water-colour painter. The son of a prosperous silk-mercer in Norwich, he was intended for his father's business, but preferring art, went to London to study in 1798. He exhibited at the Royal Academy 1800-6, before returning to Norwich in 1807 to open a school for drawing and design. He joined the Norwich Society of Artists, becoming president in 1811. He is now seen as a most original artist, with the water-colour Greta Bridge (1805) probably his masterpiece.

Greta Bridge, watercolour, 1805.

Ruins of Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire, 1803, John Sell Cotman V&A Museum no. FA.496

John Sell Cotman (16 May 1782 – 24 July 1842) was an artist of the Norwich school and an associate of John Crome. He was born in Norwich, England and worked mainly in watercolour, but also produced architectural etchings. He spent virtually all his life in England, apart from three trips to Normandy financed by rich patrons. He moved to London at the age of sixteen, and was based there for the rest of his life, although he travelled and painted extensively in Yorkshire.

His sons, Miles Edmund Cotman and John Joseph Cotman, also became painters of note.

The British Museum in London, England has a large collection of Cotman's works, as do the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Norwich Castle Museum in Norwich. Cotman's name is used as a trademark by Winsor & Newton for a range of artist's watercolour materials.

External links

• Norfolk Museums service
• Find-A-Grave profile for John Sell Cotman

References

• Hill, David (2005). Cotman in the north : watercolours of Durham and Yorkshire. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300107048
• Holcomb, Adele M (1978). John Sell Cotman. British Museum Publications. ISBN 0-7141-8004-1
• Lyles, Anne & Hamlyn, Robin (1997).British watercolours from the Oppé Collection. Tate Gallery Publishing. ISBN 1-85437-240-8
• Moore, Andrew & others (2005). John Sell Cotman : master of watercolour. Norfolk Museums Service. ISBN 0-90310-178-5
• Wilton, Andrew & Lyles, Anne (1993). The Great Age of British Watercolours, 1750-1880. Prestel, ISBN 3-7913-1254-5

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