Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/292

 Dr. Forster. He was intended for his father's business, but showing a decided preference for art went to London, most probably in 1798 or 1799, for purposes of study, and made the acquaintance of Turner, Girtin, Dewint, and others of the group of young artists who met together at Dr. Monro's in the Adelphi. He was, however, one of the later comers, being some seven years younger than Turner, and nine years younger than Girtin. He must also have already attained much skill, for he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1800, and thenceforward to 1806, chiefly views in Wales. In 1807 he returned to Norwich and became a member of the Norwich Society of Artists, and a prolific contributor to their exhibitions. He painted portraits as well as landscapes, and several of these were included in his large contribution to the Norwich Exhibition of 1808, which contained no less than sixty-seven of his works. In 1810 he became vice-president, and in 1811 president, of the Norwich Society. Early in life he married Ann, the daughter of Edmund Miles, a farmer of Felbrigg near Cromer, by whom he had five children. As in the case of Crome his principal means of livelihood was obtained from giving lessons in drawing, and his good looks and pleasant manners assisted his success with the families in the neighbourhood. One of his pupils was afterwards Mrs. Turner, the wife of Mr. Dawson Turner, the botanist and antiquarian [q. v.], a lady of considerable artistic gifts, by whose hand there is an etched portrait of Cotman after J. P. Davis. Dawson Turner was one of the artist's most constant friends. They were united by a community of taste in art and archæology, and Cotman taught all his children drawing, and was associated with him in an important work on the architectural antiquities of Normandy. Cotman soon began to publish etchings of architecture by subscription. His first volume appeared in 1811, and consisted of twenty-four plates of ancient buildings in various parts of England. Next year was commenced his ‘Specimens of Norman and Gothic architecture in the county of Norfolk,’ a series of fifty plates completed and published in a volume in 1817. Next year appeared ‘A Series of Etchings illustrative of the Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk’ (sixty plates), and the year after ‘Engravings of the most remarkable of the Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk,’ and ‘Antiquities of St. Mary's Chapel at Stourbridge, near Cambridge.’ During 1818 and 1819 was published ‘Excursions in the County of Norfolk,’ a work neither published nor projected by him, but illustrated by numerous small engravings after drawings by himself and others. His industry must have been very great when we consider the time occupied by his etchings, his drawing classes, and the large number of drawings in water colours which he also executed, besides an occasional portrait or other picture in oils. From the catalogues of the Norwich exhibitions we learn that in 1809 and in 1810 he was living in Wymer Street, Norwich. He then removed to Southtown, Yarmouth, returning to Norwich in 1825, when he took a stately red brick house in St. Martin's at Palace. Here he had a large collection of prints and books, some fine armour, and models of many kinds of vessels, from a coble to a man-of-war. During this time Cotman gave lessons at both Norwich and Yarmouth, and we learn from the ‘Norwich Mercury’ of 2 Aug. 1823 that his terms ‘in schools and families’ were a guinea and a half and two guineas the quarter, and for ‘private lessons for finishing more advanced pupils, 24 lessons, 12 guineas.’

In 1817 Cotman accompanied Dawson Turner and his family on a tour in Normandy, which he visited again in 1818 and 1820. The result of these visits to the continent was shown in his ‘Architectural Antiquities of Normandy,’ which appeared in 1822, with letterpress by Dawson Turner. As an etcher he, according to his own statement, took Giovanni Battista Piranesi for a model, and there is a breadth and simplicity of treatment about them which shows the influence of this master, but he was less conventional than the Venetian, and also less forcible in light and shade. These etchings of Cotman's, as picturesque records of various forms of architecture, are admirable, but they did not call out his more imaginative gifts as an artist. These are better seen in a small collection of forty-eight ‘soft’ etchings which he published (1838) in a volume called ‘Liber Studiorum,’ in imitation of Claude and Turner, some of which, by their charming composition, poetry of sentiment, and elegant drawing, recall both these masters.

In 1825 Cotman was elected an associate exhibitor of the Society (now the Royal Society) of Painters in Water-colours, and from this year till 1839 he was a constant contributor to their exhibitions, sending views of France and Norfolk, landscapes and sketches of figures. In 1834 he obtained, greatly through the persistent championship of Turner, the appointment of drawing-master to King's College, London, a position he filled with great success, and in which he was succeeded by his eldest son, Miles Edmund. The appointment compelled him to reside in London, where he seems to have spent a hard-working but retired life in Hunter Street (No. 42), Brunswick Square. His last years were