Charles Coleman
Charles Coleman, etching of transhumant shepherds in the campagna romana, showing sheep, a working dog of Pastore Maremmano-Abruzzese type, horses of Maremmano type and a conical capanna or lestra. From A Series of Subjects peculiar to the Campagna of Rome and Pontine Marshes (1850)
Charles Coleman, etching of transhumant shepherds in the Campagna Romana, showing sheep, a working dog of Pastore Maremmano-Abruzzese type, horses of Maremmano type and a conical capanna or lestra; from A Series of Subjects peculiar to the Campagna of Rome and Pontine Marshes (1850)
Born
Charles Coleman

c. 1807
Pontefract, Yorkshire
Died1874
Rome
NationalityBritish
Known for
MovementCampagna Romana School
SpouseFortunata Segadori

Charles Coleman (c. 1807 – 1874) was a British landscape and animal painter, born in Pontefract, in Yorkshire, England. He was active principally in Rome, where was an important influence on Nino Costa and made a significant contribution to the formation of the Campagna Romana School of painting.

Life

Coleman first went to Rome in 1831 to study the paintings of Michelangelo and Raphael.[1]: 14 [2] He became permanently resident there in 1835,[3] and on 21 June 1836 married Fortunata Segadori (or Segatori) from Subiaco, who, along with Vittoria Caldoni of Albano, was one of the most famous Roman models of the time.[4]: 247  Segadori had sat for August Riedel;[5]: 490  a portrait of her by Johann Heinrich Richter is in the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen. The couple had eight children; their son Enrico Coleman (1846–1911), was also a landscape painter, in oils and watercolour, as was the younger and less well-known Francesco Coleman. The Colemans' first address was 25 via Zucchelli.[4]: 247  In 1869 the family moved to 16 via Zucchelli, and for the first time Coleman set up a separate studio, at 33 via Margutta, possibly with the intention of providing space for his two painter sons.[3][4]: 247 

Works

Four of his paintings, dated from 1845 to 1847 and all featuring buffaloes, are listed in the catalogue of the collection of Beriah Botfield.[6]: 11  From 1848 to 1850 he made etchings of scenes and animals in the Campagna Romana, and these were published in 1850 as A Series of Subjects peculiar to the Campagna of Rome and Pontine Marshes, designed from nature and etched by C. Coleman.[7] He was dismissive of academic teaching, believing that observation from nature was the best education for an artist.[8]: 88  He exhibited five times at the Royal Academy of London, for the last time in 1869.[4]: 247 

Coleman remained largely unknown in his native country but became a major influence on the Italian landscape painter Nino Costa, whom he met in the Campagna in the early 1850s.[9]: 56  Coleman was considered the founder of the "Campagna Romana" school of painting in Italy.[8]: 88 

He died in Rome in 1874.[10]

Published works

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles Coleman (English painter).
  1. ^ Riccardo Quintieri (1901). La Rassegna internazionale della letteratura e dell'arte contemporanea, volumes 6–7 (in Italian). Firenze: Libreria Fratelli Bocca.
  2. ^ Claudia Tempesta (1982). Coleman, Enrico (in Italian). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 26. Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed August 2021.
  3. ^ a b Carlo Sisi (2003). La pittura di paesaggio in Italia: L'Ottocento (in Italian). Milano: Electa. ISBN 9788843557462.
  4. ^ a b c d Pier Andrea De Rosa, Paolo Emilio Trastulli (2001). La campagna romana da Hackert a Balla (in Italian). Rome: Studio Ottocento for Museo del Corso. ISBN 9788880164784.
  5. ^ Francesco Protonotari (editor) (1907). Nuova antologia, volume 214 (in Italian). Roma: Nuova Antologia.
  6. ^ Beriah Botfield (1848). Catalogue of pictures in the possession of Beriah Botfield, Esq., at Norton Hall. London: [William Nicols].
  7. ^ Charles Coleman (1850). A Series of Subjects peculiar to the Campagna of Rome and Pontine Marshes, designed from nature and etched by C. Coleman Rome: [s.n.].
  8. ^ a b Giuliana Pieri (2007). The Influence of pre-Raphaelitism on Fin de Siècle Italy. London: Maney Publications for the Modern Humanities Research Association. ISBN 9781904350446.
  9. ^ Olivia Rossetti Agresti (1907). Giovanni Costa, his life, work, and times, second edition. London: Gay & Bird. (first edition: London: Grant Richards, 1904)
  10. ^ Enrico Coleman (in Italian). Enciclopedie on line. Roma: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed August 2021.
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