Miles Edmund Cotman (5 February 1810 –23 January 1858) was an English artist of the

Norwich School of painters The Norwich School of painters was the first provincial art movement established in Britain, active in the early 19th century. Artists of the school were inspired by the natural environment of the Norfolk landscape and owed some influence to the wo ...

, the eldest son of

John Sell Cotman John Sell Cotman (16 May 1782 – 24 July 1842) was an English marine and landscape painter, etcher, illustrator, author and a leading member of the Norwich School of painters. Born in Norwich, the son of a silk merchant and lace dealer, Cot ...

Life

Cotman was born on 5 February 1810, the son of the artist

and Ann Miles.Miles Edmund Cotman in "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", ''FamilySearch''
Miles Edmund Cotman
. Taught to paint by his father, he first exhibited with the Norwich Society at the age of thirteen, and by the time of the society's closure in 1833 had shown sixty works. Some of his early

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

were continental scenes, probably based on prints, or on sketches by his father's friend, W.H. Herriott.Moore 1985, p.79 When his father left to take up a post teaching at

King's College School King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London and ...

in London, Cotman took over his practice as a drawing-master in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. Once the family home in St Martin's Plain in Norwich had been sold, however, he moved to London to assist his father, while his younger brother, John Joseph, who had accompanied his father to the capital, returned to take over the family's teaching practice. At first Cotman had no official post at the school, but in December 1836 he was appointed Assistant Drawing Master. Sometimes father and son collaborated on paintings. One joint work depicts the wreck of the ship carrying the works of art sold by

Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader ...

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...

– a completely imaginary incident.Bell, p.9 He stood in for his father during illnesses and absences, and succeeded to his post following his death in 1842.Moore 1985, p.80 His watercolours followed the style of his father's more brightly coloured works of the late 1820s and early 1830s.Moore 1985, p.87 John Sell Cotman thought his son had a "hard dry manner", although his style gradually loosened,Moore 1985, p.88 He was especially fond of painting shipping scenes, sometimes based on sketches made aboard a small boat owned by the Cotman family on trips along the coast to the

Thames estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. Limits An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...

and the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

. Two sets of

etching 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 ...

s by Cotman were published by Charles Muskett. From the mid-1830s he exhibited frequently in both London and Norwich, many of the works being in

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

. For most of his time in London he lived at 42 Hunter Street, near

Brunswick Square Brunswick Square is a public garden and ancillary streets along two of its sides in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is overlooked by the School of Pharmacy and the Foundling Museum to the north; the Brunswick Centre to the w ...

. In 1851, however, he was living in Haverstock Hill, and soon afterwards left London due to poor health. He moved in with his brother John Joseph at Thorpe, near Norwich. They later moved to

Great Plumstead Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

. He died in the

Norfolk and Norwich Hospital The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital stood on a site in St Stephen's Road, Norwich, Norfolk, England. Founded in 1771, it closed in 2003 after its services had been transferred to the new Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Many of the buildings ...

on 23 January 1858.Moore 1985, p.80

References

Sources

* *

External links

Works by Miles Edmund Cotman
the Norfolk Museums Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotman, Miles Edmund 1810 births 1858 deaths Artists from Norwich English landscape painters Academics of King's College London 19th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English male artists