Landscape with Church
first half 19th century
Medium
graphite on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 15.5 x 23.2 cm (6 1/8 x 9 1/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1951.16.192
Art Historical Context
John Sell Cotman’s *Landscape with Church*, created in the first half of 19th century, exemplifies the Norwich School’s dedication to capturing the serene beauty of the English countryside. As a figure in this regional British art movement, Cotman favored intimate, atmospheric landscapes that celebrated nature’s subtle moods over dramatic Romantic spectacles. This drawing likely depicts a rural scene with a prominent church, a motif evoking the harmonious blend of human architecture and the natural world that defined early 19th-century British art. Rendered in graphite on wove paper—a smooth,...
About the Artist
John Sell Cotman · 1782–1842
John Sell Cotman (1782–1842) was one of the most original and technically innovative English watercolorists of his generation, a central figure of the Norwich School whose bold, flattened compositions and luminous washes of color place him among the most modern-feeling of early nineteenth-century British artists. Born in Norwich, Norfolk, Cotman moved to London as a young man and studied in the ci...