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James Wilson Carmichael

James Wilson Carmichael (9 June 1799 – 2 May 1868), also known as John Wilson Carmichael, was a British maritime and landscape artist who painted in oil and watercolours. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne and later in London, he was a household name in his lifetime, and his work remains some of the most desirable in the marine art market.[2] He was described by art historian Jeremy Maas as "a sea painter of great, though sometimes uneven, natural talent".[3]

James Wilson Carmichael
Portrait of James Wilson Carmichael by Thomas Ellerby (1839), Laing Art Gallery.[1]
Born(1799-06-09)9 June 1799
Newcastle upon Tyne
Died2 May 1868(1868-05-02) (aged 68)
Scarborough
Known for
SpouseMary Sweet
Family

Life

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Carmichael was born in the Ouseburn area[4] of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, on 9 June 1799, the first son of Mary (née Johnson) and William Carmichael, a shipwright.[5][6] Only vague details of his early life are known, but according to Mackenzie's History of Newcastle (1827), he went to sea at a young age, and spent three years on a transport sailing between ports in Spain and Portugal.[5][7] After returning home, he was apprenticed in his father's trade to a local shipbuilding firm.[8][9] Upon completion of his apprenticeship, he devoted all his spare time to art, and eventually gave up the carpentry business, setting himself up as a drawing-master and miniature painter. His first historical painting to attract public notice was the Fight Between the Shannon and Chesapeake, which sold for 13 guineas (£13.65). He then painted The Bombardment of Algiers for Trinity House, Newcastle, for which he received 40 guineas;[7] it is still at Trinity House, along with The Heroic Exploits of Admiral Lord Collingwood in HMS "Excellent" at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, painted in collaboration with George Balmer.[10] Another important early commission was for a View of Newcastle for which the city corporation paid him 100 guineas.[7] By 1831, when Carmichael was living in Blackett Street, Newcastle, he had 18 works included in the annual exhibition of the Northern Academy of Arts, 14 of which were landscapes.[11] During the redevelopment of the centre of Newcastle, Carmichael worked with the architect John Dobson to produce some joint works, including paintings with designs for the Central station and Grainger Market.[12] He also collaborated with John Blackmore to produce the illustrated book: Views on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway (1836).[13]

When he moved to London in 1846, he had already established a reputation as a skilled maritime artist.[14] In 1855, during the Crimean War he was sent to the Baltic[a] to make drawings for the Illustrated London News. His painting of the bombardment of Sveaborg, which he witnessed during this assignment, was exhibited at the Royal Academy and is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum.[16][17] Between 1835 and 1862, he had a total of 21 paintings shown at the Royal Academy, and the same number at the British Institution, whilst 6 were exhibited by the Society of British Artists, and 8 elsewhere in London.[18] The Times reported that two of Carmichael's works, Captain Cook[b] in the Tropical Regions and Captain Parry[c] in the Polar Regions,[d] attratcted the attention of Queen Victoria when she visited an exhibition in Westminster Hall on 25 June 1847.[20] William Bell Scott, who knew the artist well, noted that he earned "a good deal of money" from the sale of smaller paintings, which were in high demand.[21][22]

In 1863,[23] Carmichael and his wife moved to Scarborough, where he continued to paint into the last year of his life despite not being in good health. He died on 2 May 1868, probably of a stroke.[2][6] In an obituary published in the Art Journal, he was described as "[g]ifted with an eye of rare accuracy and a hand ready in the delineation of form".[24]

During the second half of the nineteeth century a number of manuals on marine painting were published,[25] including two which Winsor & Newton commissioned from Carmichael: The Art of Marine Painting in Water-Colours (1859) and The Art of Marine Painting in Oil-Colours (1864).[26] He taught Canadian marine artist John O'Brien, who spent nine months in London after arriving in 1857.[27]

Carmichael married Mary Sweet on 20 March 1826.[28] His eldest son, John William, died in 1862 at the age of 32.[29] His eldest daughter Margaret was the mother of artist Herbert Gustave Schmalz, who adopted his grandfather's surname in 1918.[30] His daughter Mary Sweet was the mother of novelist Henry Seton Merriman.[31] His daughter Annie married William Luson Thomas son of a shipbroker and a successful artist who, exasperated by the treatment of artists by the Illustrated London News, founded in 1869 The Graphic newspaper which had immense influence within the art world.[32]

  •  
    Cullercoats from the South, 1845, private collection
  •  
    HMS Erebus and Terror in the Antarctic, 1847, now at the National Maritime Museum
  •  
    The Irwin Lighthouse, Storm Raging, 1851, private collection
  •  
    The Bombardment of Sveaborg, 9 August 1855, 1855, now at the National Maritime Museum
  •  
    Off the Dutch Coast, 1858, now at the Willow Gallery, London

Notes

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  1. ^ The diary Carmichael kept during this trip was acquired by the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth in 2008.[15]
  2. ^ See James Cook.
  3. ^ See William Edward Parry.
  4. ^ In a notice published in the Observer, these were described as "good geographical pictures".[19]

References

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  1. ^ "John Wilson Carmichael (1799–1868), Thomas Ellerby (1797–1861), Laing Art Gallery". Art UK. Stoke-on-Trent. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  2. ^ a b Greg (1999), p. 10.
  3. ^ Maas, Jeremy (1988). Victorian Painters. London: Barrie & Jenkins. p. 63. ISBN 0712621210.
  4. ^ Welford, Richard (1895). Men of Mark 'twixt Tyne and Tweed. Vol. I. London: Walter Scott. pp. 463–468 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b Greg (1999), p. 1.
  6. ^ a b Greg, Andrew (2004). "Carmichael, James Wilson (1799–1868)". In Matthew, H. G. C. & Harrison, Brian (eds.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 10 (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 177–178. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/4703. ISBN 0198613601. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ a b c Mackenzie, Eneas (1827). A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Town and County of Newcastle Upon Tyne including the Borough of Gateshead. Vol. 1. Gateshead: Mackenzie and Dent. p. 581 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ Cordingly, David (1974). Marine Painting in England, 1700-1900. New York: Clarkson N. Potter. pp. 144, 161. ISBN 0517512297.
  9. ^ "Fine art featuring storm tossed Tynemouth to be restored to its former glory - the Journal". Archived from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
  10. ^ "Historic Buildings". Trinity House. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  11. ^ The Northern Academy of Arts Fourth Annual Exhibition. Newcastle upon Tyne: The Northern Academy of Arts. 1831. pp. 6–13, 15 – via Internet Archive.
  12. ^ Greg (1999), pp. 5–6.
  13. ^ Carmichael, J. W. & Blackmore, J. (1839). Views on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. Newcastle, Carlisle, and London: Currie & Bowman, Hudson Scott and Thurman, and C. Tilt – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ Greg (1999), p. 7.
  15. ^ "Major accessions to repositories in 2008 relating to military history". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. 87 (352): 374–382. 2009. JSTOR 44231712 – via JSTOR.
  16. ^ Lambert, Andrew (2011). The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy Against Russia, 1853-56. London: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 24–25. ISBN 978-1409410126.
  17. ^ "The Bombardment of Sveaborg, 9 August 1855". Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  18. ^ Graves, Algernon (1969) [1901]. A Dictionary of Artists Who Have Exhibited Works in the Principal London Exhibitions from 1760 to 1893 (Third ed.). Bath: Kingsmead Reprints. p. 47.
  19. ^ "National Exhibition of Paintings, Westminster Hall (Third Notice)". The Observer. London. 11 July 1847. pp. 6–7 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Royal Commission Of Fine Arts". The Times. No. 19586. London. 26 June 1847. p. 5.
  21. ^ Scott, William Bell (1892). Minto, W. (ed.). Autobiographical Notes of the Life of William Bell Scott. Vol. I. London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. pp. 209–210 – via Internet Archive.
  22. ^ Greg (1999), pp. 7, 9.
  23. ^ Villar (1995), p. 89.
  24. ^ "Obituary: J. W. Carmichael". The Art Journal. New series. Vol. 7. London. 1868. p. 128 – via Hathi Trust.
  25. ^ Qualm, Roger & Wilcox, Scott (1987). Masters of the Sea: British Marine Watercolours. Oxford: Phaidon Press. p. 33. ISBN 0714824909.
  26. ^ Villar (1995), pp. 87–88.
  27. ^ Lumsden, Ian (1987). "New Brunswick Ship Portraiture in the Nineteenth Century: An examination of the Work of John O'Brien, William Gay Yorke, William Howard Yorke, and Edward John Russel". In Fancy, Margaret (ed.). The Proceedings of the Art and Music in New Brunswick Symposium, Mount Allison University. Anchorage Series. Vol. 3. Sackville: Centre for Canadian Studies, Mount Allison University. pp. 35–52. ISBN 0864920849.
  28. ^ Greg (1999), p. 4.
  29. ^ "Deaths". The Times. No. 24395. London. 5 November 1862. p. 1.
  30. ^ Hall, Marshall (2005). The Artists of Northumbria (Third ed.). Bristol: Art Dictionaries. pp. 70–71. ISBN 0953260992.
  31. ^ Cox, Homer T. (1967). Henry Seton Merriman. Twayne's English Authors Series. Vol. 37. New York: Twayne Publishers. p. 16.
  32. ^ Bills, Mark (2004). "Thomas, William Luson (1830–1900)". In Matthew, H. G. C. & Harrison, Brian (eds.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 54 (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 390–391. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/27248. ISBN 0198614047. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Sources

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  • Greg, Andrew (1999). John Wilson Carmichael, 1799–1868: Painter of Life on Sea and Land. Newcastle upon Tyne: Tyne and Wear Museums. ISBN 0905974727.
  • Villar, Diana (1995). John Wilson Carmichael 1799–1868. Portsmouth: Carmichael and Sweet. ISBN 1898644055.
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