clouded with ill-health and mental depression, which interfered seriously with his work and his happiness. The statement in Redgrave's ‘Dictionary of Artists of the English School’ that Cotman ultimately lost his reason is unwarranted, but there is no doubt that he suffered from fits of alternate melancholy and excitement, and that the mental condition of more than one of his children gave him great anxiety. Some letters which have been preserved show this and also the strength of his affections, his desire to do his duty towards his children, and the courage with which he endeavoured to meet the difficulties of life. In 1836 he was elected an honorary member of the Institute of British Architects, and after this, except the publication of ‘Engravings of the Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk,’ 173 plates, 1839, there is no other event of sufficient importance to chronicle before his death, which occurred 24 July 1842. He was buried in the cemetery behind St. John's Wood Chapel on 30 July. His collections at Norwich had been sold when he left that place in 1834, but the contents of his house in Hunter Street were sufficient to occupy five days' sale at Christie's. On 17 and 18 May 1843 his drawings and pictures were sold by his executors at Christie's, and realised 262l. 14s. only, nearly all the drawings fetching but a few shillings apiece. The highest price obtained for a water-colour drawing was 6l., and for an oil-painting 8l. 15s. His library, which contained many rare and beautiful works, was sold on 6 and 7 June, and realised 277l. 18s. 6d., and his prints, sold on 8 June, brought only 29l. 12s.
The reputation of Cotman as an artist has greatly increased of late years. It is now seen that he was one of the most original and versatile of English artists of the first half of this century, a draughtsman and colourist of exceptional gifts, a water-colourist worthy to be ranked among the greater men, and excellent whether as a painter of land or sea. Although the variety of his sympathy for both art and nature was so great that his drawings and pictures differ much in style, they are generally remarkable for largeness of design and unusual breadth of light and colour. It was his principle to ‘leave out but add nothing,’ and no one has carried ‘omissions’ to a more daring extent than he in some of his later works, where great spaces of wall or of sky are ‘left,’ to the sacrifice of detail but the enhancing of the general effect. His oil-pictures are comparatively few. He had not time for them in his busy life, but he painted a few large in size and fine in style and colour. Taking him altogether he was the most gifted of the Norwich School, wider in range, a finer draughtsman, and of more refined and cultivated individuality than ‘Old Crome’ [q. v.]; but his efforts needed concentration to produce their due effect, and there can be little doubt that if he had had more time to devote to the production of important pictures he would have taken much higher rank as an artist while he lived, and have before now achieved a reputation as a colourist equalled by few of his countrymen. There is one picture by Cotman in the National Gallery, and some water-colour drawings at the South Kensington Museum.
Some fine oil-pictures of his—‘The Mishap,’ a ‘Sea Breeze,’ and a ‘Composition,’ with a waterfall and bridge—are in the possession of Mr. J. J. Colman, M.P., at Carrow House, near Norwich, and Mr. J. S. Mott of Barningham Hall has a small but very beautiful ‘Gale at Sea.’ Mr. Colman has also a good collection of his sketches, and Mr. J. Reeve of Norwich has a large number of sketches and drawings, including many good drawings illustrating the different phases of the artist from 1794 to 1841. Many of his pictures have been exhibited of late years at the winter exhibitions of the Royal Academy, especially in 1875 and 1878.
[Redgrave's Dict.; Redgraves' Century of Painting; Bryan's Dict. (Graves); Wedmore's Studies in English Art, 1st series; Wodderspoon's John Crome and his Works, edited by Bacon, 1876; notes left by the late Edwin Edwards, and communications from Mr. J. Reeve of Norwich.]
COTMAN, JOSEPH JOHN (1814–1878), landscape artist, was the second son of John Sell Cotman, and was apprenticed to his uncle Edmund, who had succeeded to his (John's) grandfather's business [see Cotman, John Sell]. After about two years' apprenticeship he made the acquaintance of Joseph Geldart, a solicitor of Norwich, who was fond of sketching, and Cotman, who down to that time had not applied himself to art, now determined to follow the profession of an artist. Geldart did the same, and the two friends worked together assiduously. He went to London with his father in 1834, and remained there till 1836, when he returned to Norwich to take his brother Miles's [q. v.] practice as drawing-master. He was a good teacher and an artist of much original power, but he suffered from periodical attacks of cerebral excitement, followed by depression, which presented an insuperable bar to success in life. As he grew older these attacks became more frequent; but in the intervals he worked with remarkable energy, producing a large quantity of drawings, many of them of great merit.
