An Eye For Colour: John Joseph Cotman 1814-1878

An accomplished watercolourist with a penchant for vibrant colour and a rapid sketch-like technique, John Joseph Cotman (born on 29 May 1814) was the third of John Sell Cotman’s five children and learned drawing at his father’s school in St Martin’s at Palace Plain, Norwich.

John Joseph mostly painted Norfolk and imaginary landscapes in watercolour, and occasionally in oil. A believer in the value of composition and drawing, he wrote that the objective of drawing is ‘to lead the mind to the study, and appreciation of all that is beautiful both in Art & Nature.’ This bicentenary exhibition celebrates the idiosyncratic and highly original use of colour that made John Joseph Cotman such an innovative member of the Norwich art scene in the 19th century.