John Wilson Carmichael

Portrait of John Wilson Carmichael, lithography, year and author unknown.

John Wilson Carmichael, a marine painter, was born at Newcastle upon Tyne about 1800. From constantly seeing so much shipping, he obtained at an early age great accuracy of drawing in this line of art, and among his earliest paintings produced a very fine picture, 'The Heroic Exploit of Admiral Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar,' which was placed in the Trinity House, Newcastle. His name first appears as an exhibitor in 1838, when he contributed an oil picture, 'Shipping in the Bay of Naples,' to the Society of British Artists. He exhibited at the Royal Academy both in oil and water-colours, contributing among others, in 1841, 'The Conqueror towing the Africa off the Shoals of Trafalgar;' and, in 1843, 'The Arrival of the Royal Squadron.' He was the author of the series of 'English Coast Views from the Mouth of the Thames to the Firth of Forth.' He resided in his native town up to about 1845, when he removed to London, where he was already known as a skillful marine painter. At the commencement of the Russian war he proceeded on board one of her Majesty's ships to the Baltic; and on his return several of the sketches made by him during his absence were published as engravings in the 'Illustrated London News.' He afterwards removed to Scarborough, where he died in 1868.

He published 'The Art of Marine Painting in Water-Colours' in 1859, and 'The Art of Marine Painting in Oil-Colours' in 1864.

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.

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  Cullercoats from the South, 1845, private collection

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  HMS Erebus and Terror in the Antarctic, 1847, now at the National Maritime Museum

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  The Irwin Lighthouse, Storm Raging, 1851, private collection

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  The Bombardment of Sveaborg, 9 August 1855, 1855, now at the National Maritime Museum

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  Off the Dutch Coast, 1858, now at the Willow Gallery, London

References

This article incorporates text from the article "CARMICHAEL, James Wilson" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.

External links

• Biography from the National Maritime Museum