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Highlights

Thomas Creswick (British 1811 - 1869)

19th Century Fine Art Legacy

His works, like himself, were pleasant and cheerful, ever taking the sunny view of nature...[11]

Creswick was born in Sheffield, England and as a youth, studied under English landscape painter J. V. Barber in nearby Birmingham. He was just 16 years old when he exhibited his first landscape at Birmingham Exhibition of 1827. The next year, in 1828, Creswick moved to London to follow up on his success in Birmingham. That same year the young Creswick had two paintings excepted for exhibition -- one at the British Royal Academy and one at the British Institution. In the 1830s, Creswick also worked as an illustrator for a number of books and early magazines which provided him some additional income as his promising career was just getting started.

Landscape painting was Creswick’s primary advocation, this at a time when landscape painters were not afforded a position in the Royal Academy. This was primarily because the Academy, at that time, still followed the ‘hierarchy of the genres’ which held history painting to be the highest achievement of an artist, with landscape painting a lowly fourth, but still above animal and still-life painting. Creswick was an exception to hierarchy, though – elected as an associate of the Academy in 1842 and a member in 1851. The only landscape painter who held a position in the Royal Academy until the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Creswick was referred to, using the expressions of the times, as either one of the "outsiders" or the painter who ‘always takes us out of doors.’ This because his subjects were not historical figures or portraits, but streams, rocks and trees that he saw on his excursions about the English countrysides of Cornwall, York, Wales, Lancashire and adjacent counties, and sometimes Scotland. In 1837 he visited Ireland which resulted in a number of well received paintings.

In an 1870 Art Journal article, it is stated that "there is in all his works thorough naturalism, and in his method of treatment pure simplicity; a freedom from exaggerated effect, which is too often mistaken for genius.” More recently, Mary Cowling, in her 2008 book Paintings from the reign of Victoria: the Royal Holloway collection, London, says of Creswick:

"Creswick’s particular achievement was to capture the beauty of the British landscape in its most familiar and undramatic aspects; epitomizing in well-chosen scenes everything it represented – its values as well as its appearances."

His Ruskinesque ‘truth to nature’ manner of painting, with his use of cool greens and ‘silvery’ effects of aerial perspective,’ were the hallmarks of his paintings -- they made him the successful and respected painter he was -- there was a steady demand for his works from the public.

After years of failing health, Creswick died in 1869. Interestingly, in his obituary, the London Echo elects to first describe his visage, not his early important contributions to the emerging art of landscape painting in England:

"The man in bodily appearance did not resemble his works, as in Creswick’s landscapes there is elegance and prettiness – a contrast to the artist, who was burly, ruddy, and farmer like in appearance."

What is an artist supposed to look like, I wonder? Did one have to be extraordinarily handsome to beautifully paint the rugged splendor of the English and Welsh countryside? How uncharitable! In sharp contrast, the Illustrated Times, who dispensed with such pettiness, stated:

"We regret to announce the death of an artist who, if popularity be evidence of greatness, has every claim to that title. His works, like himself, were pleasant and cheerful, ever taking the sunny view of nature, and by his death the public loses a benefactor and the profession an esteemed brother."

Here’s to an ordinary man, who was an extraordinary landscape painter of his time!

Written by Joan Hawk, Researcher and Co-Owner Bedford Fine Art Gallery, September 1, 2025.

Use only with the permission of Bedford Fine Art Gallery.

References:

  1. The Art Journal 1856-05: Vol 2 Iss 17, pg. 141.

  2. The Art Journal 1870-02: Vol 9 Iss 98, pg. 53.

  3. Collins, Judy and Nicola Bennet, 1983, Landscape in Britain, 1850-1950, exhibition catalog, pg. 10, British Arts Council.

  4. Cowling, Mary, 2008, Paintings from the reign of Victoria: The Royal Holloway Collection, London, Art Servies International, Alexandria, Virginia.

  5. https://newspaperarchive.com/illustrated-times-jan-01-1870-p-16/

  6. https://newspaperarchive.com/london-echo-jan-03-1870-p-5/

  7. Illustrated Times, May 12, 1860, Pg. 298; source: https://archive.org

  8. Tate Gallery, 1993, Robert Vernon’s Gift: British Art for the Nation 1847, pg. 41, Tate Gallery Publications, London.

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