James Johnson (artist)
James Johnson | |
---|---|
Born | 1803 Downend, Bristol |
Died | 1834 |
Nationality | English |
Known for | Architectural drawing, Watercolour, Oil painting |
James Johnson (1803–34) was an English architectural draughtsman, watercolourist and oil painter who was a member of the Bristol School of artists. He contributed nearly 50 drawings of scenes from Bristol, England to the topographical collection of George Weare Braikenridge.[1][2] The Braikenridge Collection makes Bristol's early 19th century appearance one of the best documented of any English city.[3][4] Johnson was also a painter of poetic landscapes in oil.[1]
Johnson was born in 1803 at Downend near Bristol. His father was a publican. By 1819 he was producing drawings, and he exhibited a landscape at the Royal Academy in 1822.[1] In Bristol he participated in the evening sketching meetings of the Bristol School,[2] and in 1823 he collaborated with Francis Danby and Samuel Jackson in a lithography project.[5]
In 1824 Johnson was one of the organisers of the exhibition of local artists at the new . However finding it difficult to sell his work he moved to London in 1825 - "starved out" of Bristol, according to John Eagles, a fellow member of the Bristol School. He exhibited landscapes at the Royal Academy again in 1825 and 1826.[1]
In 1826 he returned to Bristol and then moved to Bath, Somerset, where he became a teacher of drawing.[2] However he continued to produce Bristol drawings for Braikenridge, including some very fine watercolours of church interiors in 1828.[1] He died in Bath in 1834 after throwing himself from a window.[2]
The Braikenridge Collection is in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery.[6] The Tate Gallery has one of his romantic landscape oil paintings, The Tranquil Lake: Sunset Seen through a Ruined Abbey,[2] which has been called one of the finest landscapes of the Bristol School[1]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Greenacre, Francis (1973). The Bristol School of Artists: Francis Danby and Painting in Bristol 1810–1840 (exhibition catalogue). Bristol: City Art Gallery, Bristol. pp. 165–169.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Stoddard, Sheena (2001). Bristol before the Camera: The City in 1820–30. Bristol: Redcliffe. p. 107. ISBN 1-900178-68-0.
- ^ Gomme, A.; Jenner, M.; Little, B. (1979). Bristol: an architectural history. London: Lund Humphries. p. 11. ISBN 0-85331-409-8.
- ^ Foyle, Andrew (2004). Pevsner Architectural Guide, Bristol. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 19. ISBN 0-300-10442-1.
- ^ Matthew, H.C.G.; Harrison, Brian (2004). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 29. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 522. ISBN 0-19-861379-2.
- ^ Stoddard, Sheena (2001). Bristol before the Camera: The City in 1820–30. Bristol: Redcliffe. p. 5. ISBN 1-900178-68-0.
External links[]
- 1803 births
- 1834 deaths
- 19th-century English painters
- English male painters
- Artists from Bristol
- History of Bristol
- English watercolourists
- Landscape artists
- English romantic painters