 Richard Parkes
Bonington
Also on show at the Castle
Museum are paintings by famous local artist Richard
Parkes Bonington, (pictured right), one of the English Romantic
movement. Along with Constable and Turner, Bonington gave
English landscape painting a unique status in the early
part of the 19th century.
- Fisherfolk on the
Normandy Coast
- Nottingham Castle Museum and
Art Gallery
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Richard Parkes Bonington was
born at Arnold, Nottingham in 1801. His mother first
opened a school at Arnold then later in Nottingham. His
father was for a time Governor of Nottingham Gaol: 'Mr. Bonington had the
reputation of being a good tavern companion, an open,
generous-hearted man, but villainous company too often
led him into unfortunate predicaments . . . after
conversing with prisoners . . . on the question of free
government and reading to them the forbidden doctrines of
Tom Paine, he was forced to tender his resignation.'
When the school
failed, Mr. Bonington went into a partnership setting up
a lace-making factory in Calais. Since the exporting of
lace machinery was illegal, the parts were
surreptitiously shipped across the channel piece by
piece. When the loom was set up, the Boningtons migrated
to Calais in 1817.
Young Bonington,
then fifteen, began to sketch the colourful life of the
port and ancient buildings where he met professional
artist Louis Francia who taught him the theory and
practice of water-colour. Mr. Bonington, alarmed about
the future of his family business, banned his son from
any more art lessons. Undeterred and with the help of
Francia, young Bonington ran off to Paris to make studies
in the Louvres where he met Eugene Delacroix. By May
1818, the Bonington household re-united when his parents
arrived in Paris to open a lace shop.
In 1820 Bonington
became a student at Ecole des Beaux Arts, and occasionally studied
under Baron de Gros. Thus he belonged by training more to
the French than the British School.
He painted his
first landscapes in Normandy and Picardy and two
water-colours were exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1822.
Constable's painting The Haywain was dominant at the 1824 Paris Salon and so
influenced Delacroix and Bonington that they visited
England together the following year. Unknown in England,
Bonington exhibited two paintings at the British
Institution in 1826 and excited amazement at his French
technique which was so redolent of English feeling. One
critic wrote 'Who
is R.P. Bonington? We never saw his name in any catalogue
before, and yet here are pictures which would grace the
foremost name in landscape art.'
In Paris however
Bonington was known as one of the leaders of the new
school. In the spring of 1826 he went to Italy, spending
three weeks in Venice filling his portfolios with sea
pieces and historical scenes. Unfortunately he brought
back with him from Venice the seeds of consumption,
probably caught in long evenings' exposure by the city's
canals. Through 1827 he worked with feverish energy and
exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy,
London.
In the spring of
1828 Bonington was in London, possibly arranging his
works for the Royal Academy exhibition, and on his return
to Paris sank into a state of weakness and exhaustion. A
not-too-distant change of air to the Bois de Boulogne
brought on a crisis when he suffered sunstroke sketching
on the banks of the Seine. In desperation the Bonington
family moved him in easy stages back to London where they
hoped to find a cure. He died on 23 September 1828 in
London at the short age 26 - genius cut off in its bloom.
At his funeral a
number of Royal Academicians followed the cortege led by
their President. The French obituary notices referred to
him as 'notre' Bonington. His great
friend, Eugene Delacroix, said of him: 'I knew Bonington well . .
. as a lad he developed an astonishing dexterity in the
use of water-colours which were in 1817 an English
novelty . . . which makes his works, in a certain sense,
diamonds by which the eye is pleased and fascinated . .
.'
Bonington was 'the most natural and the
most delicate in that Romantic school in which he was the
first to make an appearance. He had a fine eye for the
charm of nature, saw grace and beauty in her everywhere,
and represented the spring and sunshine in bright clear
tones.' He
carried the Constable quality over to France which so
influenced the Barbizon school with all its developments
on the landscape art of France.
Bonington also
painted historical episodes in French history and two of
his best known works are 'Henry IV and the Spanish Ambassador' (sold in 1870 for £3,320)
and 'Francis I
and the Duchesse d'Etampes' now in the Louvre.
Some of his finest
productions were executed in lithography.
Click Bonington's paintings to view three of his works.
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Grand Opening
No
pains had been spared to cover the walls and fill the galleries
with objects most worthy of attention from some of the richest
collections in the country. Oil paintings, water colours, in the
Long Gallery (pictured
right), lace, tapestry,
furniture, pottery, porcelain, glass, armour, ironwork, carvings
(wood, ivory, agate and jades), sculptures, bronzes, and also
included was the finest collection of Wedgewood in existence
presented by Mr. Felix Joseph.