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(b Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, 19 July 1789; d Douglas, Isle of Man, 17 Feb. 1854). English Romantic painter and mezzotint engraver, celebrated for his melodramatic scenes of cataclysmic events crowded with tiny figures placed in vast architectural or landscape settings. He caught the public imagination with spectacular paintings such as Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still (1816, United Grand Lodge of Great Britain, London), the work that made his reputation, and in 1821 Lawrence referred to him as ‘the most popular painter of the day’. His work was indeed truly popular, for he made his living mainly through the sale of prints of his pictures rather than the paintings themselves. He became famous in France as well as Britain, he was knighted by Leopold I of Belgium (1833), and his influence was felt by American artists such as Cole.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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