DOI article:
Baldry, A. L.: The members of the society
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27085#0044
THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY
and the West of England ; and Whichelo alternated between coast
scenes and pure landscapes. He is supposed to have been a pupil
of either Varley or Cristall, but there is comparatively little known
about his early life. Moore and Essex were architectural draughts-
men of some standing ; the former, like Cattermole, executed some
of the illustrations for Britton’s “ Cathedral Antiquities,” the latter
did a certain amount of illustrative work, but made his chief
successes with drawings of buildings like Magdalen College, Oxford,
and Ely Cathedral.
The years 1824 and 1825 are both memorable, for the first saw the
election of William Henry Hunt, and the second that of John Sell
Cotman. With Hunt was admitted a second Associate, John Masey
Wright, a man of forty-six, who had gained a considerable reputa-
tion by his compositions illustrating scenes from Shakespeare’s plays,
and from various romances. He was practically a self-taught artist ;
but in his youth he had known Stothard, and had been much
influenced by him. Hunt was some twelve years younger, and was
almost unknown to the general public. Up to the time when he
joined the Society he had painted chiefly landscapes or architectural
subjects ; but he began then to exhibit those studies of rustic figures
and still life to which he adhered for the rest of his long career.
He was an admirably acute observer and a masterly executant, and
by his consummate ability he gave a meaning and importance to
his work far beyond what can ordinarily be claimed for such essays
in what is necessarily more or less unimaginative realism. In some
ways it is surprising that an artist so highly gifted should have been
content to confine his practice within such narrow limits, but he
was severely hampered throughout his life by ill-health, and it was
scarcely possible for him to attempt anything which might have
taxed his physical energies.
Cotman was a painter of much wider range ; he produced land-
scapes, architectural subjects, and sea pieces, figure compositions,
and portraits ; he worked equally well in oil and water-colour, and
he was a successful etcher. His drawings and paintings can be
unreservedly praised for their largeness and distinction of style, and
for their splendid technical qualities ; he can be counted without
hesitation among our greater masters. His understanding of the
principles of pictorial arrangement was extremely judicious, few
artists have known better how to adjust the composition of masses
and details, or how to manage relations of light and shade. There
is in all his work a dignified simplicity which resulted partly from
the correctness of his vision, and partly from the straightforwardness
m xxxii
and the West of England ; and Whichelo alternated between coast
scenes and pure landscapes. He is supposed to have been a pupil
of either Varley or Cristall, but there is comparatively little known
about his early life. Moore and Essex were architectural draughts-
men of some standing ; the former, like Cattermole, executed some
of the illustrations for Britton’s “ Cathedral Antiquities,” the latter
did a certain amount of illustrative work, but made his chief
successes with drawings of buildings like Magdalen College, Oxford,
and Ely Cathedral.
The years 1824 and 1825 are both memorable, for the first saw the
election of William Henry Hunt, and the second that of John Sell
Cotman. With Hunt was admitted a second Associate, John Masey
Wright, a man of forty-six, who had gained a considerable reputa-
tion by his compositions illustrating scenes from Shakespeare’s plays,
and from various romances. He was practically a self-taught artist ;
but in his youth he had known Stothard, and had been much
influenced by him. Hunt was some twelve years younger, and was
almost unknown to the general public. Up to the time when he
joined the Society he had painted chiefly landscapes or architectural
subjects ; but he began then to exhibit those studies of rustic figures
and still life to which he adhered for the rest of his long career.
He was an admirably acute observer and a masterly executant, and
by his consummate ability he gave a meaning and importance to
his work far beyond what can ordinarily be claimed for such essays
in what is necessarily more or less unimaginative realism. In some
ways it is surprising that an artist so highly gifted should have been
content to confine his practice within such narrow limits, but he
was severely hampered throughout his life by ill-health, and it was
scarcely possible for him to attempt anything which might have
taxed his physical energies.
Cotman was a painter of much wider range ; he produced land-
scapes, architectural subjects, and sea pieces, figure compositions,
and portraits ; he worked equally well in oil and water-colour, and
he was a successful etcher. His drawings and paintings can be
unreservedly praised for their largeness and distinction of style, and
for their splendid technical qualities ; he can be counted without
hesitation among our greater masters. His understanding of the
principles of pictorial arrangement was extremely judicious, few
artists have known better how to adjust the composition of masses
and details, or how to manage relations of light and shade. There
is in all his work a dignified simplicity which resulted partly from
the correctness of his vision, and partly from the straightforwardness
m xxxii