English painter
John Crome
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Born
| John Crome
(
1768-12-22
)
22 December 1768
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Died
| 22 April 1821
(1821-04-22)
(aged 52)
Norwich
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Nationality
| English
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Movement
| Norwich School of painters
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Spouse
| Phoebe Berney
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Children
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John Crome
(22 December 1768 – 22 April 1821), once known as
Old Crome
to distinguish him from his artist son
John Berney Crome
, was an English
landscape painter
of the
Romantic
era, one of the principal artists and founding members of the
Norwich School of painters
. He lived in the English city of
Norwich
for all his life. Most of his works are of
Norfolk
landscapes.
Crome's work is in the collections of public art galleries, including the
Tate Gallery
and the
Royal Academy
in
London
, and the
Castle Museum
in Norwich. He produced
etchings
and taught art.
Biography
[
edit
]
John Crome was born on 22 December 1768 in
Norwich
,
and baptised on 25 December at
St George's Church, Tombland, Norwich
.
He was the son of John Crome, a
weaver
(who is also described as either an innkeeper or a lodger at a Norwich
inn
),
and his wife Elizabeth.
After a period working as an errand boy for a doctor (from the age of 12), he was apprenticed to Francis Whisler, a house, coach and
sign painter
.
[note 1]
At about this time he formed a friendship with
Robert Ladbrooke
, then an
apprentice
printer. They shared a room and went on sketching trips in the fields and lanes around Norwich.
They occasionally bought
prints
to copy.
Crome and Ladbrooke sold some of their work to a local printseller, Smith and Jaggars,
and it was probably through the print-seller that Crome met Thomas Harvey of
Old Catton
, who helped him set to up as a drawing teacher.
Crome had access to Harvey's art collection, which allowed him to develop his skills by copying the works of
Thomas Gainsborough
and
Meindert Hobbema
. Crome received further instruction and encouragement from the artist
John Opie
, and the English portraitist
William Beechey
, whose house in London he frequently visited.
In October 1792 Crome married Phoebe Berney.
They produced two daughters and six sons, two of whom,
John Berney Crome
and
William Henry Crome
became landscape painters.
[11]
In 1803 Crome and Ladbrooke formed the Norwich Society of Artists, a group that also included
Robert Dixon
,
Charles Hodgson
,
Daniel Coppin
,
James Stark
and
George Vincent
. Their first exhibition was in 1805; it marked the start of the
Norwich School of painters
, the first art movement created outside London.
Crome contributed 22 works to its first
exhibition
, held in 1805. He served as President of the Society several times and held the position at the time of his death.
With the exception of the times when he made short visits to London, he had little or no communication with the great artists of his own time.
He exhibited 13 works at the
Royal Academy
between 1806 and 1818. He visited Paris in 1814, following the defeat of
Napoleon
, and later exhibited views of Paris,
Boulogne
, and
Ostend
. Most of his subjects were of scenes in
Norfolk
.
Crome was drawing master at
Norwich School
for many years. Several members of the Norwich School art movement were educated at the school and were taught by him,
[14]
including Stark and
Edward Thomas Daniell
.
He also taught privately, his pupils including members of the influential
Gurney family
, whom he stayed with whilst in the
Lake District
in 1802.
He died at his house in Gildengate, Norwich, on 22 April 1821, and was buried in
St. George's Church
. On his death-bed he is said to have gasped, "Oh Hobbema, my dear Hobbema, how I have loved you".
A memorial exhibition of more than 100 of his works was held in November that year by the Norwich Society of Artists.
Crome's Broad
and nearby Crome's Farm in
The Broads National Park
are named after him. The area surrounding
Heartsease
is covered by the Crome ward and division on
Norwich City Council
and
Norfolk County Council
respectively.
An incident in Crome's life was the subject of the one-act
opera
Twice in a Blue Moon
by
Phyllis Tate
, to a
libretto
by
Christopher Hassall
: it was first performed in 1969. In the story Crome and his wife split one of his paintings in two to sell each half at the Norwich Fair.
[16]
Works
[
edit
]
Crome, who is sometimes referred to as "Old Crome",
worked in both
watercolour
and
oil
, producing more than 300 oil paintings during his career.
[
citation needed
]
Between 1809 and 1813 he made a series of
etchings
. They were not published in his lifetime, although he issued a prospectus announcing his intention to do so.
His two main influences are considered to be
Dutch 17th-century painting
and the work of the Welsh landscape painter
Richard Wilson
. Along with the artist
John Constable
, Crome was one of the earliest English painters to represent identifiable species of trees, rather than generalised forms.
His works, renowned for their originality and vision, were inspired by direct observation of the natural world combined with a comprehensive study of
old masters
.
[
citation needed
]
The art historian
Andrew Hemingway
has identified a theme of leisure in Crome's work, citing particularly his works depicting the beach at
Great Yarmouth
, and the
River Wensum
in his native Norwich.
An example of the latter is the oil painting
Boys Bathing on the River Wensum, Norwich
, which was painted in 1817.
[20]
It depicts a scene at
New Mills
, the location of several of Crome's works.
Gallery
[
edit
]
-
The Poringland Oak
(
c.
1818),
National Gallery
-
A Barge with a Wounded Soldier
(undated),
Yale Center for British Art
-
The River Wensum, Norwich
(
c.
1814), Yale Center for British Art
-
Yarmouth Jetty
(
c.
1810), Yale Center for British Art
-
Boys Bathing on the River Wensum, Norwich
(1817), Yale Center for British Art
-
Woodland Landscape near Norwich
(1810?1812), Yale Center for British Art
-
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Cundall gives his master's name as 'Whistler'.
References
[
edit
]
Sources
[
edit
]
- Binyon, Laurence
(1897).
John Crome and John Sell Cotman
. London: Seeley & Co.
OCLC
251906700
.
- Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911).
"Crome, John"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Clifford, Derek; Clifford, Timothy (1968).
John Crome
. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.
OCLC
557807587
.
- Cole, Timothy; Van Dyke, John Charles (1902).
Old English Masters
. New York: The Century Co.
OCLC
975407215
.
- Cundall, Herbert Minton (1920). Holme, Geoffrey (ed.).
The Norwich School
. London: Geoffrey Holme Ltd.
OCLC
651802612
.
- Goldberg, Norman L. (1978).
John Crome the Elder
. Vol. 1: Text and a critical catalogue. Phaidon Press.
ISBN
978-0-7148-1821-4
.
- Hemingway, Andrew (2016).
Landscape between Ideology and the Aesthetic: Marxist Essays on British Art and Art Theory, 1750?1850
. Brill. p. 302.
ISBN
978-90-04-26901-9
.
- Mottram, Ralph Hale
(1931).
John Crome of Norwich
. London: John Lane The Bodley Head Limited.
OCLC
717763630
.
- Stephen, Leslie
, ed. (1888).
"Crome, John (1768-1821)"
.
Dictionary of National Biography
. Vol. 13. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 140?143.
- Walpole, Josephine (1997).
Art and Artists of the Norwich School
. Woodbridge, UK: Antique Collectors' Club.
ISBN
978-1-85149-261-9
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
John Crome
.
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International
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National
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Artists
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People
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Other
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Norwich Society of Artists
1803-1833
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William Philip Barnes Freeman (1813?1897)
Joseph Geldart (1808?1882)
Maria Margitson (1832?1896)
↓
Norwich Society of Artists
Stannard/Hodgson/Coppin family
other members of the Norwich School
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