Near Durham
John Sell Cotman British
Publisher Henry George Bohn British
Not on view
In addition to working in oils and watercolors, Cotman was a prolific etcher, issuing his first prints in 1811. This etching comes from a group published in 1838 by Henry G. Bohn from Cotman’s plates for a set devoted to "principles of Landscape composition." The title of the series, Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies), derives from that used by J. M. W. Turner in a famous 1807–9 series of prints in which the artist sought to elevate landscape as a poetic and sublime genre. Cotman’s most evocative images are decidedly more rustic than Turner’s. Near Durham centers on a medieval tower that once fronted a Norman church, with a ruined wall and buried arch shown in the background to suggest what was lost.
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