1. George Cumberland was an English art collector, writer and poet.
28 Facts About George Cumberland
1. 2.
George Cumberland was a lifelong friend and supporter of William Blake, and like him was an experimental printmaker.
3.
George Cumberland was an amateur watercolourist, and one of the earliest members of the Bristol School of artists.
4.
George Cumberland made use of his wide circle of connections to help its other members, in particular assisting and influencing Edward Bird and Francis Danby.
5.
George Cumberland formed a low opinion of the Academy and attacked it in various essays.
6.
The young George Cumberland held radical views; with Stothard and Sharp, he joined the Society for Constitutional Information, becoming a friend of its leader, John Horne Tooke, and attracting the attention of government spies.
7.
However, when George Cumberland witnessed the Gordon Riots of 1780 at first hand, he reacted with horror.
8.
George Cumberland was to be a lifelong friend and supporter of Blake.
9.
In printing his own works George Cumberland would come to rely on Blake's technical advice on copperplate and lithography.
10.
George Cumberland visited Paris and Florence, and in 1786 visited Switzerland with Charles Long, 1st Baron Farnborough.
11.
George Cumberland studied the works of Raphael and the engravers Marcantonio Raimondi and Giulio Bonasone and formed a collection of prints and objects, in particular a large collection of Bonasone engravings.
12.
In 1796 George Cumberland produced An Attempt to Describe Hafod, a guide to Johnes's estate of Hafod in Wales.
13.
George Cumberland commissioned Blake to engrave a map to accompany the guide.
14.
In 1798 George Cumberland published a utopian novel, The Captive of the Castle of Sennaar.
15.
In 1803 George Cumberland moved to Weston-super-Mare in Somerset, and then in 1807 to Bristol where he lived for the rest of his life.
16.
George Cumberland became one of the earliest members of the informal group of artists which has become known as the Bristol School, and one of the first to take part in the group's excursions to sketch the scenery around Bristol.
17.
George Cumberland believed that painting should be directly from nature; he produced small landscape studies which avoided the picturesque.
18.
George Cumberland's watercolours were similar in style to those of his friend John Linnell.
19.
George Cumberland became a close friend of Edward Bird, and godfather to his son.
20.
George Cumberland did not have the resources to be Bird's patron, but he would lend Bird items from his art collection to study.
21.
On Bird's death in 1819 George Cumberland successfully petitioned the Royal Academy to provide a pension for Bird's widow.
22.
George Cumberland helped many of the Bristol artists through recommendations and introductions to his influential friends.
23.
In 1820 when Francis Danby exhibited The Upas Tree of Java at the British Institution, George Cumberland exerted his influence to promote its favourable reception.
24.
In 1822 when Danby, Branwhite and Johnson were about to visit London, George Cumberland ensured that Thomas Lawrence, Thomas Stothard and others were alerted.
25.
George Cumberland had copies of America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy, The Song of Los, Visions of the Daughters of Albion and Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
26.
The last engraving that Blake made was a visiting card for George Cumberland, who had sent the plate to Blake for him to decorate.
27.
George Cumberland was a collector of fossils and from 1810 was an honorary member of the Geological Society.
28.
George Cumberland presented his collections to the Royal Academy and the British Museum.