31 Facts About Henry Ninham

Henry Ninham was an English landscape artist, engraver and heraldic painter.

The son of John Ninham, one of the Norwich School's founding members, Ninham trained as a panel painter under his father and was taught art by John Crome.

Henry Ninham rarely travelled far from home to find new subjects.

The Norwich School of painters, which included Henry Ninham, was a group connected by geographical location, the depiction of Norwich and rural Norfolk, and by close personal and professional relationships.

The art historian William Dickes, writing in 1905, believed Henry Ninham's grandfather was a Huguenot who came to England from Flanders following the revocation of the 1598 Edict of Nantes in 1685.

Henry Ninham's father John was born in Norwich in about 1754.

Henry Ninham lived and worked at 11, Chapel Field, where he specialised in painting coach panels, in common with his contemporary John Crome.

John Henry Ninham is the least well known of Crome's contemporaries and few works have been attributed to him.

John Henry Ninham is considered to belong to the Norwich School of painters, but unlike many of the artists of the Norwich School, he was neither a member of the Norfolk and Norwich Society of Artists, nor did he exhibit there.

Henry Ninham's works were shown at the Norfolk and Suffolk Institution for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in 1831, and at the Norfolk and Norwich Fine Arts Exhibition in 1860.

John Henry Ninham died in Norwich on 16 August 1817, his obituary being published in the Norfolk Chronicle the following week.

Henry Ninham lived at 11, Chapelfield Lane, where his father ran a small copperplate printing firm.

Henry Ninham trained under his father as an apprentice engraver and a heraldic painter, and was taught art by John Crome, who influenced his use of soft greys and pinks in his palette.

Henry Ninham is considered by the author Harold Day to be a minor artist.

Henry Ninham began to exhibit after 1815, when he was in his early twenties.

Henry Ninham produced few watercolours, those he made being mainly reproductions of his oil paintings.

The quality of Henry Ninham's prints rivalled those made by John Sell Cotman and show a spontaneity and originality resulting from him having complete control over the engraving and printing processes.

Henry Ninham made good quality lithographs on an occasional basis.

Henry Ninham collaborated in the production of a number of books and academic journals.

Henry Ninham was a friend of the Reverend Edward Thomas Daniell, a landscape painter and etcher who grew up in Norfolk.

Together they made etchings of the keep of Norwich Castle, recording the outer decoration prior to its restoration, with Henry Ninham sending his friend news about the controversial restoration whilst Daniell was living in London.

Henry Ninham had pupils, including the landscape painter Alfred Priest, whose early works were strongly influenced by his teacher.

Henry Ninham taught perspective drawing and copperplate engraving to supplement the income generated from his heraldic painting and engraving business.

Henry Ninham was described by contemporaries as being kind-hearted, of average height, but rather heavy and stout.

Henry Ninham led a regular and uneventful life, but his daughter Frances Elizabeth died aged 24 in 1855, his wife Frances having died in 1845.

Henry Ninham did not publicise himself much as an artist, preferring for instance to advertise as a 'Teacher of Perspective' in exhibition catalogues.

Henry Ninham was thought highly of by the artist John Sell Cotman, who called him "a very clever painter".

The art historian Harold Day, writing in the 1960s, described Henry Ninham as having a "pleasing painter with a delicate sense of colour and a controlled touch", and the art historian Josephine Walpole regards Henry Ninham as more naturally talented than his father.

Henry Ninham is recognised along with David Hodgson as the foremost recorder of Norwich's buildings from the 1840s.

Henry Ninham paid particular tribute to Ninham, who lent him many drawings to be copied.

Several of Henry Ninham's paintings have been sold at auction in recent years.