- Museum number
- 1859,0528.120
- Description
-
Covehithe Church, Suffolk; view of the ruined church from near to, its arches overgrown with ivy, at right a glimpse of open country at r, an ash tree at the further end of the church, among the tomb-stones. 1804-5
Watercolour, over graphite
- Production date
- 1804-1805
- Dimensions
-
Height: 400 millimetres
-
Width: 567 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Cotman went to Covehithe, on the Suffolk coast south of Yarmouth, at the end of July 1804, to join Dawson Turner, who had rented a cottage there for a family holiday. This is Cotman's first documented connection with Turner, who he may have met previously in London through Sir Henry Englefield.
Cotman's highly dramatic treatment of the ruined gothic church, seen from a low viewpoint, is unfinished. It may well have been coloured on the spot (as Kitson suggested, p.67), and set aside for lack of time. The colour tests along the lower edge would have been trimmed off had the work been brought to completion. Hemingway has drawn parallels between the foreshortening of the west front of Croyland Abbey Cotman drew a few days later and some works by Girtin ('Piranesi', p.217); the same point could apply to the present drawing. Evidently, both artists were under the influence of Piranesi, but it is not clear whether at this stage in his career, Cotman was studying the Italian's etchings at first hand, or only mediated through artists such as Girtin and Turner. At the time he was working on his first portfolio of etchings, in March 1811, Cotman wrote to Francis Cholmeley that he had received six Piranesi etchings on loan from Sir Henry Englefield; his comment, 'that masters work was the model I intended most religiously to bend my mind and judgement too [sic]' makes it plain that he had already formed a great admiration for Piranesi prior to undertaking his own first efforts as a printmaker. In a letter to Dawson Turner of February the same year, the statement appeared again; 'I decidedly follow Piranesi, however far I may be behind him in every requisite', though Cotman then wrote of his great desire to see a 'compleat sett' (from a ms letter inserted in the Department's copy of the Architectural Antiquities of Normandy, published in A.E.Popham, 'The Etchings of John Sell Cotman', Print Collectors' Quarterly IX, 1922, p.214).
Another relatively large watercolour of a cottage, inscribed 'Cottage Covehithe', and on the same type of paper, is in the Levens Hall collection (Arts Council 1982, cat. 32). Like the watercolour of the church, it also has colour tests along the lower edge, an indication of Cotman's endeavours in painting out of doors. Shortly after leaving Covehithe, Cotman made his way, via Yarmouth and Norwich, to Castle Acre priory, where he wrote to Dawson Turner 'Cove Hythe - pish my dear Sir must not be named with this' (C. Barker collection, quoted Arts Council, cat.31). He had no sooner arrived at Croyland a few days later than he was decrying the merits of Castle Acre. Rajnai cites this as an example of Cotman's great enthusiasm which endeared him to his pupils, but could at times almost tip over into mental instability.
Bibliographic references:
Arts Council: John Sell Cotman 1782-1842. Arts Council (touring exhibition shown at the V&A, Whitworth AG, Manchester and Bristol City AG), 1982
A. Hemingway, ''The English Piranesi'; Cotman's architectural prints'. Walpole Society XLVIII, 1980-2
S.D. Kitson, ‘The Life of John Sell Cotman’, 1937
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1982 Aug-Oct, London, V&A, 'Cotman', no. 31
1982 Nov-Dec, Manchester, Whitworth AG, 'Cotman', no. 31
1982-1983 Dec-Jan, Bristol AG, 'Cotman', no. 31
1988 May-July, Nottingham, Castle Museum, Arts Festival Exh, (no cat.)
2002 Feb-May, BM, 'John Sell Cotman; The Poetry of Nature', no cat
- Acquisition date
- 1859
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1859,0528.120