John Sell Cotman (attributed to)
(Inscribed on back 'Cotman')

1782-1842

A view across the gently meandering curves of a slow flowing waterway. Beneath an unusually light sky, a cluster of red-roofed buildings and a church spire are doubled in the water in reflection, creating a pleasingly symmetrical composition. The long grasses in the marshy bank in the foreground of the picture are executed with great control and skill, as are the tonal alterations in the colours reflected in the water.

Cotman was born in Norwich , the son of a haberdasher. He came to London in 1798, and soon became a leading member of the circle of watercolour artists gathered around Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), despite having little formal training. From 1803-5 he made annual visits to Yorkshire ; the sketches and studies made there provided the basis for many of his best-known watercolours.

For many years he lived in Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast, painting in oil and watercolour and printmaking. In 1834, he was appointed Drawing Master at King's College School in London , and lived in Bloomsbury . He made a final, extended visit to Norfolk in the autumn of 1841, not long before his death in London in July 1842. For most of the twentieth century, Cotman was the most widely admired English watercolourist, surpassing even Turner in popularity.

Cotman's works can be found in the collections of Tate Britain, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge .