Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Nattes, John Claude
NATTES, JOHN CLAUDE (1765?–1822), topographical draughtsman and water-colour painter, is stated to have been born in 1765, and to have been a pupil of Hugh Primrose Deane, the Irish landscape-painter. Nattes worked as a topographical draughtsman, travelling all over Great Britain and also in France. His method of colouring causes his drawings to be ranked among the earliest examples of water-colour painting in this country, though there is little artistic merit in his productions. He published the following works, illustrated by himself: ‘Hibernia Depicta,’ 1802; ‘Scotia Depicta,’ 1804; ‘Select Views of Bath, Bristol, Malvern, Cheltenham, and Weymouth,’ 1805; ‘Bath Illustrated,’ 1806; ‘Views of Versailles, Paris, and St. Denis,’ 1809 (?). Other drawings of his were engraved for the ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ the ‘Copperplate Magazine,’ and Howlett's ‘Views in the County of Lincoln.’ Nattes was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1782 to 1804. In the latter year he was one of the artists associated in the foundation of the ‘Old’ Society of Painters in Water-colours. He contributed to their exhibitions up to 1807, in which year he was convicted of having exhibited drawings that were not his own work. Nattes was therefore expelled from the society. He resumed exhibiting at the Royal Academy up to 1814, and died in London in 1822. He lived at No. 49 South Molton Street.
[Roget's History of the ‘Old Water-Colour’ Society; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]