The Town of Beccles from the Bridge, Suffolk

John Sell Cotman British

Not on view

Between 1811 and 1823 Cotman lived in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he designed and etched several series of prints. Longman & Company commissioned this drawing of the market town of Beccles, on the Waveney River, to illustrate Excursions in the County of Suffolk (1818–19). For his contributions to the project, which one critic has dubbed "topography turned high art," Cotman used ink lines and washes with masterful economy to distill the view; repeated forms of trees and boats frame the river and indicate recession. On the distant slope, terraced houses are lightly indicated and do not distract from the fourteenth-century church of St. Michael, reduced by the artist to a silhouette pierced by tiny lights and accentuated by diagonal rays in the sky.

The Town of Beccles from the Bridge, Suffolk, John Sell Cotman (British, Norwich 1782–1842 London), Pen and brown pen, brush and wash, over graphite

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The Town of Beccles from the Bridge, Suffolk, John Sell Cotman (British, Norwich 1782–1842 London), Pen and brown pen, brush and wash, over graphite
The Town of Beccles from the Bridge, Suffolk, John Sell Cotman (British, Norwich 1782–1842 London), Pen and brown pen, brush and wash, over graphite

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