James Wilson Carmichael (1800-1868) - 1852 Watercolour By the Sea

Description

Condition

There is light foxing to the paper. The paper curved to the edges where it has previously been rolled.

Size

23.2 x 33.7cm (9.1" x 13.3")
Sheet: 25.3 x 35.5cm (10" x 14")

Artist Biography

John Wilson Carmichael was born in Newcastle in 1800, the eldest son of William Carmichael, who worked as a shipwright. He went to sea at an early age, and spent three years on board a vessel sailing between ports in Spain and Portugal. On his return, he was apprenticed to a shipbuilding firm. After completing his apprenticeship, he devoted all his spare time to art, and eventually gave up the carpentry business, setting himself up as a drawing-master and miniature painter.


Carmichael's first historical painting to attract public notice was the Fight Between the Shannon and Chesapeake. He then painted The Bombardment of Algiers for Trinity House, Newcastle. His name first appears as an exhibitor in 1838, when he contributed an oil painting, Shipping in the Bay of Naples, to the Society of British Artists. He showed both oil paintings and watercolours at the Royal Academy, his contributions including The Conqueror towing the Africa off the Shoals of Trafalgar (1841) and The Arrival of the Royal Squadron (1843).


He lived in Newcastle until about 1845, when he moved to London, where he was already known as a skilful marine painter. In 1855, during the Crimean War he was sent to the Baltic to make drawings for The Illustrated London News. His painting of the bombardment of Sveaborg, which he witnessed during this assignment, was exhibited at the Royal Academy and is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum.