Richard Parkes Bonington

Richard Parkes Bonington packed a whole career into a few years. His small coastal views of northern France, with low horizons, wide luminous skies and figures on wet sand, and his sparkling views of Venice have a lightness of touch that his friend Delacroix compared to a diamond. He was equally brilliant in watercolour and oil.

Born in Arnold, near Nottingham, in 1802, he moved to Calais with his family as a teenager and studied watercolour with Louis Francia, then entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Baron Gros. He won a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1824, the same year as John Constable. Under Delacroix’s influence he also painted small scenes from French history, such as Henri III. He died in London in 1828, aged just 25. The Wallace Collection in London holds 35 of his works.

In Boats near the Shore of Normandy, notice how much of the canvas he gives to sky.