The Bristol School of Artists
For we joke and we pun and we bask in the sun, all brethren of the brush.'
Rev John Eagles
The Bristol School of artists was a circle of artists who worked together in the city between 1810-1840. Edward Bird, the Wolverhampton-born artist had settled in Bristol in 1794 and went on to become a Royal Academician. Bird established an informal sketching group, which brought together Francis Danby, Edward Villiers Rippingille, Samuel Jackson, and James Johnson, as well as supportive friends and amateurs George Cumberland, Dr John King and the Rev John Eagles. They were not consciously a school in the way that the Norwich School, led by John Crome and John Sell Cotman was, with its annual exhibitions and presidents. Nor were they as clear-cut a group as the London Sketching Society. But they sketched together, in Leigh Woods and at each other's homes and there is an identifiable style: Bird enjoyed considerable success with genre scenes and was an important influence on Rippingille, helping him to develop his skills as a painter of contemporary life. Danby and Jackson learnt much from each other's landscape painting. Danby's Romanticism inspired younger artists such as Paul Falconer Poole and James Johnson. A more formalised sketching group met during the 1830s, involving William James Müller and James Baker Pyne, who left a unique record of the Reform Riots in their oil sketches of the fires.
The Bristol School also wielded influence over Bristol's fledgling art scene, firstly in organising exhibitions at the Bristol Literary and Philosophical Institution in Park Street. Samuel Jackson was later involved with the Bristol Academy of Fine Arts, now the Royal West of England Academy.
The Bristol School is characterised by the artists' fresh approach to the Bristol landscape, their Romantic views of the Avon Gorge and intimate Leigh Wood scenes, their exotic fantasies in monochrome grey and sepia washes and their development of genre scenes of contemporary life. This can be seen in The Reading of the Will Concluded by Edward Bird and The Recruiting Party by E V Rippingille. Their genre painting in particular influenced Rolinda Sharples and Samuel Colman.
As a group they dispersed: Bird died young in 1819 aged 47, Danby, Rippingille, Poole and Johnson left Bristol, as Müller and Pyne did later. Patronage in Bristol was limited; opportunities for artists lay elsewhere, in London and for Danby, Rippingille and Müller, overseas travel beckoned.
quoted by Francis Greenacre in The Bristol School of Artists: Francis Danby and Painting in Bristol 1810-1840 1973
The Bristol School of artists was a circle of artists who worked together in the city between 1810-1840. Edward Bird, the Wolverhampton-born artist had settled in Bristol in 1794 and went on to become a Royal Academician. Bird established an informal sketching group, which brought together Francis Danby, Edward Villiers Rippingille, Samuel Jackson, and James Johnson, as well as supportive friends and amateurs George Cumberland, Dr John King and the Rev John Eagles. They were not consciously a school in the way that the Norwich School, led by John Crome and John Sell Cotman was, with its annual exhibitions and presidents. Nor were they as clear-cut a group as the London Sketching Society. But they sketched together, in Leigh Woods and at each other's homes and there is an identifiable style: Bird enjoyed considerable success with genre scenes and was an important influence on Rippingille, helping him to develop his skills as a painter of contemporary life. Danby and Jackson learnt much from each other's landscape painting. Danby's Romanticism inspired younger artists such as Paul Falconer Poole and James Johnson. A more formalised sketching group met during the 1830s, involving William James Müller and James Baker Pyne, who left a unique record of the Reform Riots in their oil sketches of the fires.
The Bristol School also wielded influence over Bristol's fledgling art scene, firstly in organising exhibitions at the Bristol Literary and Philosophical Institution in Park Street. Samuel Jackson was later involved with the Bristol Academy of Fine Arts, now the Royal West of England Academy.
The Bristol School is characterised by the artists' fresh approach to the Bristol landscape, their Romantic views of the Avon Gorge and intimate Leigh Wood scenes, their exotic fantasies in monochrome grey and sepia washes and their development of genre scenes of contemporary life. This can be seen in The Reading of the Will Concluded by Edward Bird and The Recruiting Party by E V Rippingille. Their genre painting in particular influenced Rolinda Sharples and Samuel Colman.
As a group they dispersed: Bird died young in 1819 aged 47, Danby, Rippingille, Poole and Johnson left Bristol, as Müller and Pyne did later. Patronage in Bristol was limited; opportunities for artists lay elsewhere, in London and for Danby, Rippingille and Müller, overseas travel beckoned.
quoted by Francis Greenacre in The Bristol School of Artists: Francis Danby and Painting in Bristol 1810-1840 1973