Richard Parkes Bonington
British painter (1801-1828)
Richard Parkes Bonington (25 October 1802 – 23 September 1828) was an English Romantic landscape painter, who in his last years also painted many historical figure paintings. His family moved to France when he was 14 and he can also be considered as a French artist, and an intermediary bringing aspects of English style to France. Becoming, after his early death, one of the most influential British artists of his time, the facility of his style was inspired by the old masters, yet was entirely modern in its application. His landscapes were mostly of coastal scenes, with a low horizon and large sky, showing a brilliant handling of light and atmosphere. He also painted small historical cabinet paintings in a freely-handled version of the troubadour style.
He painted in oils and watercolour, but in oils his style remains "the extension of the techniques and genius of a master painter in watercolour".
Life and work
Richard Parkes Bonington was born in the town of Arnold, four miles from Nottingham. His father also known as Richard was successively a gaoler, a drawing master and lace-maker, and his mother a teacher. Bonington learned watercolour painting from his father and exhibited paintings at the Liverpool Academy at the age of eleven.
In 1817, Bonington's family moved to Calais, France, where his father had set up a lace factory.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Parkes Bonington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.