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paintings john sell cotman paintings london paintings innovative paintings europe paintings unite kingdom paintings watercolor paintings aesthetic paintings british paintings indigenous paintings legend paintings medium paintings move paintings native paintings paint paintings sheet paintings

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Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire. Artist: John Sell Cotman (British, Norwich 1782-1842 London). Dimensions: sheet: 11 15/16 x 8 1/4 in. (30.3 x 21 cm). Date: 1803.
Cotman helped to reshape British watercolor painting by demonstrating the medium's aesthetic and expressive potential. A native of Norwich, in Norfolk, he moved to London in 1798 and over the next eight years developed an innovative and distinct formal vocabulary. This watercolor was made after a summer sketching tour of Yorkshire, in 1803, and a visit to Rievaulx Abbey-one of the Catholic institutions allowed to decay after Henry VIII dissolved its resident order in 1534. Gothic architecture had strong nationalist associations, and these ruins also appealed to romantic taste. Cotman's rendering of cattle sheltering in a partially collapsed chapel points to the transience of human endeavor. Technically, the drawing provides a fresh and characteristic example of how the artist turned natural and architectural forms into arrestin...