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John Colley Nixon (baptised as John Coley Nixon on 18 August 1755, died 1818) was an English merchant and amateur artist.
One of the best-known amateur artists of the late eighteenth century, producing landscape paintings, engraved cartoons, and illustrations, Nixon made the greatest impact with his caricatures of urban life and was secretary of the
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John Nixon (before 1759-1818)
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Beefsteak Club
Beefsteak Club is the name or nickname of several 18th- and 19th-century male dining clubs in Britain and Australia that celebrated the beefsteak as a symbol of patriotic and often Whig concepts of liberty and prosperity.
The first beefsteak clu ...
.
Early life
One of the sons of Robert Nixon, a successful City of London merchant of Irish origins, he had brothers called Robert (1759–1837), who became a clergyman, Richard, and James.Career
Nixon became a merchant, with his brother Richard, living and working in Basinghall Street, London. He was also a captain in the Guildhall Volunteers and honorary secretary of the Beefsteak Club. Exhibiting paintings at theRoyal Academy of Arts
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 purpo ...
between 1781 and 1813, he moved in leading social and artistic circles.
Nixon made many visits to Ireland and around Britain in the 1780s and 1790s, combining business and pleasure, as he made sketches of the places he visited. He also travelled on the continent, his first such tour being in 1783–1784. Some of his topographical drawings were included in William Watts William Watts may refer to:
* William Watts (East India Company official) (c. 1722–1764), British official involved in the overthrow of the last independent ruler of Bengal
* William Watts (fl. 1512–1518), mayor of Reading
* William Watts (pries ...
‘s ''Seats of the Nobility and Gentry'' (1779–1786), and in 1786 the Royal Academy hosted an exhibition of his illustrations for Laurence Sterne’s '' Tristram Shandy''. In 1791 he was joined on one of his journeys to Ireland by Francis Grose, and the next year was in Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
with Thomas Rowlandson. He became a friend of the writer Elizabeth Craven
Elizabeth, Princess Berkeley, sometimes unofficially styled Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach (''née'' Lady Elizabeth Berkeley; —), previously Elizabeth Craven, Baroness Craven, of Hamstead Marshall, was an author and playwright, perhaps be ...
while she was living at Brandenburgh House, Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
...
, and notably acted in plays staged there. He drew many popular caricatures, which were often published by William Holland. These tended to satirise social events.
Nixon illustrated Thomas Pennant's ''Journey from London to the Isle of Wight'' (1801) and his ''Guide to Watering Places'' (1803).
Nixon’s brother the Rev. Robert Nixon also exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1790 and 1808. While he was curate at Foots Cray, in 1793, he was visited by J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...
, who gave him lessons in landscape painting, and he was also taught by Stephen Rigaud
Stephen Jordan Rigaud (1816–1859), eldest son of Stephen Peter Rigaud, was an English clergyman and schoolmaster.
In September 1846, Rigaud went to Westminster School as Henry Liddell's senior assistant master and now has a house at the ...
. Another brother, James, painted miniatures.
In later life Nixon inherited an estate called Upland, at Ilford, Essex, from Richard Eastland, who was his great uncle.
A frequent visitor to the Isle of Wight, Nixon died on the island, at Ryde, in 1818.
Works
Notes
Further reading
*Frank S. Brown, ''A Georgian Comedy of Manners: Humorous Watercolours of Life in Bath, the West Country and London by John Nixon'' (Bath: Holburne Museum, 1994)External links
SOLD ARCHIVE: JOHN NIXON (1755-1818)
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John Nixon (before 1759-1818)
chrisbeetles.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Nixon, John 1750s births 1818 deaths English merchants English landscape artists English caricaturists English people of Irish descent