John Crome

John Crome painted the Norfolk countryside: old oak trees, heaths, river banks and the boats on the rivers around Norwich. His landscapes are simple, honest and solid, with broad skies and trees studied with great care.

He was born in Norwich in 1768, the son of a weaver, and was apprenticed to a coach and sign painter. He learned by copying Dutch landscapes and works by Gainsborough in a local collection. Hobbema was his great love. In 1803 he helped found the Norwich Society of Artists, the first important group of painters in England outside London, and he became known as Old Crome to tell him apart from his son. The Poringland Oak is in the National Gallery in London and Mousehold Heath is at Tate Britain.

Wherries on the Yare and Landscape Scene in Norfolk show the flat country and big skies he knew all his life. He died in Norwich in 1821.