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Source Description
John Sell Cotman left his native Norfolk at the young age of 16 and traveled to London with the aspiration to be an artist. His work evolved at a rapid pace as he developed a highly original style remarkable for its simple elegance and schematic treatment of the natural world. This landscape was made soon after a trip to Yorkshire. Cotman largely ignored the noteworthy landmarks of the area, preferring obscure views—trees, crumbling stone walls, and dilapidated fences. Inspired by the Greta woods, the straining bows of the trees form a beautifully balanced structure of geometric and amorphous shapes.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
155930
label
Traveler in a Woodland Landscape
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
155930
contentType
drawing
title
Traveler in a Woodland Landscape
description
John Sell Cotman left his native Norfolk at the young age of 16 and traveled to London with the aspiration to be an artist. His work evolved at a rapid pace as he developed a highly original style remarkable for its simple elegance and schematic treatment of the natural world. This landscape was made soon after a trip to Yorkshire. Cotman largely ignored the noteworthy landmarks of the area, preferring obscure views—trees, crumbling stone walls, and dilapidated fences. Inspired by the Greta woods, the straining bows of the trees form a beautifully balanced structure of geometric and amorphous shapes.
date
1806
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79944585
creators
1539
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 30.3 x 21 cm (11 15/16 x 8 1/4 in.)
cul
England, 19th century
accession
1991.22
Source extras
tec
graphite and gray wash
tombstone
Traveler in a Woodland Landscape, 1806. John Sell Cotman (British, 1782–1842). Graphite and gray wash; sheet: 30.3 x 21 cm (11 15/16 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden Fund, 1991.22
supportMaterials
description
beige wrapping paper
collection
DR - British
didYouKnow
This drawing is closely related to one in the collection of the Norwich Castle Museum, in which a similarly abstracted figure retreats beneath embowering trees twisted in fantastic shapes.
citations
citation
Rajnai, Miklós and Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton. <em>John Sell Cotman, 1782-1842: Early Drawings (1798-1812) in Norwich Castle Museum</em>. Norwich, UK: Norfolk Museums Service, 1979.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 58, no. 49, and p. 58, n. 7, no. 48
citation
Turner, Evan H. et al. "Notable Acquisitions." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 78, no. 3 (June 1991): 63-147.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 77
url
www.jstor.org/stable/25161319
citation
Hill, David. <em>Cotman in the North: Watercolours of Durham and Yorkshire</em>. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 173, n. 20
citation
Lemonedes, Heather. <em>British Drawings: The Cleveland Museum of Art. </em>Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 56-7, 144, no. 17; Reproduced: p. 57
creditline
Delia E. Holden Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:06:21.460000
sourceId
155930
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
graphite and gray wash
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
5737760ea87eec16