Charles Coleman (c. 1807 – 1874) was a British

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

and

animal painter An animal painter is an artist who specialises in (or is known for their skill in) the portrayal of animals. The ''OED'' dates the first express use of the term "animal painter" to the mid-18th century: by English physician, naturalist and wri ...

, born in

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wake ...

, in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, England. He was active principally in Rome, where was an important influence on

Nino Costa Giovanni Costa (15 October 1826 – 31 January 1903), often known as Nino Costa, was an Italian landscape painter and patriotic revolutionary. Biography Giovanni Costa was born in Rome on 15 October 1826, the fourteenth of the sixteen childr ...

and made a significant contribution to the formation of the Campagna Romana School of painting.

Life

Coleman first went to Rome in 1831 to study the paintings of

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

and

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...

. He became permanently resident there in 1835, and on 21 June 1836 married Fortunata Segadori (or Segatori) from Subiaco, who, along with

Vittoria Caldoni Vittoria Candida Rosa Caldoni (6 March 1805 in Albano Laziale – 1872?/1890? in Russia) was an Italian artists' model. She was the most popular model among the German artists residing in Rome in the early nineteenth-century; especially thos ...

of Albano, was one of the most famous Roman models of the time. Segadori had sat for August Riedel; a portrait of her by Johann Heinrich Richter is in the

Thorvaldsen Museum The Thorvaldsen Museum is a single-artist museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, dedicated to the art of Danish Neoclassical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1844), who lived and worked in Rome for most of his life (1796–1838). The museum is locat ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. The couple had eight children; their son Enrico Coleman (1846–1911), was also a landscape painter, in oils and watercolour, as was the younger and less well-known

Francesco Coleman Francesco Coleman (1851–1918) was an Italian painter. He was the son of the English painter Charles Coleman and brother of the better-known Italian painter Enrico Coleman. He was known as a painter, in oil and in water-colour, of the people a ...

. The Colemans' first address was 25 via Zucchelli. In 1869 the family moved to 16 via Zucchelli, and for the first time Coleman set up a separate studio, at 33

via Margutta Via Margutta is a narrow street in the centre of Rome, near Piazza del Popolo, accessible from Via del Babuino in the ancient Campo Marzio neighborhood also known as ''"the foreigner's quarter"''. Mount Pincio is nearby. Via Margutta original ...

, possibly with the intention of providing space for his two painter sons.

Works

Four of his paintings, dated from 1845 to 1847 and all featuring buffaloes, are listed in the catalogue of the collection of

Beriah Botfield Beriah Botfield (5 March 1807 – 7 August 1863) was a British Member of Parliament representing Ludlow in Shropshire as a Conservative. He was also a noted bibliographer, geologist and botanist. Life He was born on 5 March 1807 in Earl's Dit ...

. From 1848 to 1850 he made

etchings Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

of scenes and animals in the

Campagna Romana The Roman Campagna () is a low-lying area surrounding Rome in the Lazio region of central Italy, with an area of approximately . It is bordered by the Tolfa and Sabatini mountains to the north, the Alban Hills to the southeast, and the Tyrrhenia ...

, and these were published in 1850 as ''A Series of Subjects peculiar to the Campagna of Rome and Pontine Marshes, designed from nature and etched by C. Coleman''. He was dismissive of academic teaching, believing that observation from nature was the best education for an artist. He exhibited five times at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

of London, for the last time in 1869. Coleman remained largely unknown in his native country but became a major influence on the Italian landscape painter

, whom he met in the Campagna in the early 1850s. Coleman was considered the founder of the "Campagna Romana" school of painting in Italy. He died in Rome in 1874.

Published works

* ''A Series of Subjects peculiar to the Campagna of Rome and Pontine Marshes, designed from nature and etched by C. Coleman'' Rome: .n.1850.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Charles 1807 births 1874 deaths British landscape painters People from Pontefract Campagna Romana 19th-century British painters British male painters 19th-century British male artists