Watercolor, gouache, graphite, and scraping out on medium smooth cream wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 11 3/4 x 16 1/2 inches (29.8 x 41.9 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.2418
Gallery Label:
Cotman’s early ambitions were thwarted in 18o6 when his peers blackballed his attempt to join the newly formed Society of Painters in Water Colours. Excluded from this new body, he retreated to his native Norwich to work as a drawing master and never fully recovered from the blow to his prestige. This watercolor is derived from sketches made while staying at Yarmouth, an East Anglian seaside resort with broad beaches lapped by the North Sea. At this time he confessed to a friend that “for many weeks one overwhelming flood of despairing thoughts made every atom of my composition a separate torture.” It is hardly surprising that there is sometimes a restive quality about Cotman’s best later watercolors. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)
