Many great artists throughout history died young, yet left an indelible mark. The early 19th-century artist Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828) is an important case in point. A few weeks shy of his 26th birthday, he passed away from tuberculosis. His entire artistic output spanned roughly 10 years, and only the second half of that tenure included oil painting. Despite this, Bonington is considered one of the most significant artists of his generation, impacting the Romantic movement in France and Britain.
Bonington worked in diverse media—watercolor, print, drawing, and painting—and genres—landscape, seascape, history, and literature. Outside Britain, the largest institutional collection of his paintings outside is held by the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA). The museum was founded by banking scion Paul Mellon, whose mid-century British art collecting revived scholarly interest in the field.
Making His Mark
Bonington was born in Nottingham, England in 1802. He is thought to have shown a talent for drawing at a young age. His family was in the lace business. Due to local disruptions in the industry, they moved to France in 1817 and established a lace factory. They lived first in Calais and then Paris. It was in Calais that Bonington developed great skills in watercolor painting, learning from a local artist who had studied in England.
Bonington felt a strong connection with northern France and returned frequently to sketch its landscapes and people. His skills as a watercolorist served him well when he later explored oil; he had a singular ability to convey clarity of light, dazzling color, and naturalism that balanced harmoniously with the romantic sensibility.
While living in Paris, the young artist studied under the prominent history painter Antoine-Jean Gros at the École des Beaux Arts. He continued producing brilliant watercolors, which were admired by the likes of Théodore Géricault (who also died young), Camille Corot, and Eugène Delacroix. He popularized the medium among his French peers.
Bonington and Delacroix briefly shared a studio, and the two artists influenced each other. Of him, Delacroix wrote, “I could never weary of admiring his marvelous understanding of effects, and the facility of his execution.”
Bonington exhibited oil paintings for the first time in 1824. The venue was the prestigious Paris Salon, and there Bonington saw the art of the English landscapist John Constable. Both men were awarded a gold medal. Constable sketched outside, out-of-doors, which inspired Bonington. A subsequent trip Bonington took to London in 1825 further exposed him to Constable’s work, as well as that of J.M.W. Turner, who was impressed by the younger artist.
Bonington took only one trip to Italy; this 1826 tour exerted great influence on the remainder of his work. Journeying with his friend and patron Charles Rivet, Bonington was especially enamored of Venice and its art history, studying the works of Renaissance Old Masters. He sketched prolifically, working in graphite, watercolor, and even with oil.
To sketch outdoors using oils, he used small millboards (heavy paperboard), which he had discovered on his trip to London the previous year. Art historians consider these “en plein air” oil sketches of Venice to be among the highpoint of his career, reflecting his deft lyricism and atmospheric transitions. Their numbers are small, but YCBA owns an example titled “Grand Canal, Venice.”
Figure Painting
Thanks to Delacroix’s influence, Bonington pursued figure painting in the final years of his life. He drew on scenes from history and literature, such as Shakespeare’s. These works are prized due to their rarity. “A Knight and Page (from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s ‘Götz von Berlichinge’)” combines both subjects. The historical knight Götz von Berlichingen was romanticized as a German Robin Hood in an eponymous Goethe play. Bonington modeled his depiction on an Andrea del Verrocchio equestrian statue. He'd seen it in a Venetian square during his formative time in the city. He gifted the painting to Delacroix, who in turn bequeathed it to Rivet.
Bonington’s “Seated Turk” from 1826 alludes strongly to Delacroix’s characteristic style. The sitter’s Middle Eastern costume came from props in Delacroix’s studio where Bonington worked. Portrayals of the Ottoman Empire, which neither artist ever visited, were popular during the Romantic period due to the Greek War of Independence. The painting was part of a Parisian exhibit held to benefit the Greeks.
The location of the 1828 Bonington painting “Corso Sant’Anastasia, Verona” is of an Italian city replete with literary connections. Dante lived there after exile from Florence. It was even the setting of several Shakespeare plays. Bonington spent a few days sketching in the city on the same trip he took to Venice. He used those drawings two years later as inspiration for this work.
The Gilded Age writer Edith Wharton declared that Bonington was “the Keats of painting.” It was a fitting comparison as both men died young, but cast long shadows that inspired later generations of artists. Bonington’s reputation continued to grow after his death, and a memorial exhibit celebrating his work was held six years later. In France, the “Boningtonisme” phenomenon caused a revaluation of the watercolor medium, resulting in it being considered a high art.
