Richard Parkes Bonington

Richard Parkes Bonington’s evocative and atmospheric landscapes highlight the English painter’s mastery of colour and its use to represent light, depth and texture. Despite a brief career, Bonington died of tuberculosis in 1828 at the age of 25, the artist produced an important body of work, leaving a lasting impact on the development of 19th-century landscape painting.

Born in 1802 in Arnold, near Nottingham, Bonington moved to Calais, France with his family in 1817. He then moved to Paris in 1818 to study in the atelier of Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, a time in which he also befriended the young Delacroix on a sketching trip to the Louvre. During this time, Bonington developed a refined technique and an appreciation for the luminous style of French artists. However, Bonington was also deeply influenced by the English landscape tradition, particularly by the work of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. His ability to blend these influences helped distinguish him as a unique talent in the art world.

Bonington first exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1824 where his work caused a sensation. His work in oil, whilst excellent, was an extension of the techniques of his genius in watercolour, which were celebrated for their soft gradations of light and atmospheric depth. His subjects often featured coastal scenes, historical settings and landscapes bathed in the gentle light of dawn or dusk.

In the early 1820s, Bonington embarked on a six-year sketching tour of Europe. Having travelled through northern France, London and Italy, the artist spent four weeks in Venice in 1826 at the end of this trip and produced numerous graphite drawings and close to 30 works in both watercolour and oil of the Venetian views. In his last years he proved himself to be one of the greatest, as well as one of the earliest, English 19th-century genre painters.

Bonington’s influence spread across England and France and gave of a school later called Le Boningtonisme. The group of artists associated with this school, including Thomas Shotter Boys, William Callow, David Roberts and David Cox, worked in watercolour characterised by a freedom of handling of the medium and brilliance of colour.

Today, his paintings can be found in major collections, including the Wallace Collection in London, where they continue to inspire with their luminous charm and atmospheric depth.