Henry Ninham

Henry Ninham
Portrait by Anthony Sandys
Born 15 October 1796
Died 23 October 1874
Norwich
Nationality English
Known for Landscape painting
Movement Norwich School of painters

Henry Ninham (15 October 1796 – 23 October 1874) was an English painter of landscapes and a son of John Ninham, one of the founder members of the Norwich School of painters.

John Ninham

Portrait of John Ninham (Norfolk Museums Collections)

Henry Ninham's family was possibly of Huguenot descent.[1] His father John Ninham, who was born in Norwich in 1754, probably lacked any formal education, and was indentured as a heraldic painter and an engraver. He lived and worked at 11, Chapel Field, Norwich, where he specialised in painting coach panels, in common with his contemporary John Crome.[2] He died in Norwich on 16 August 1817, his obituary being published in the Norfolk Chronicle the following week.[3]

John Ninham's life and work is the least well known of Crome's contemporaries and few paintings have been attributed to him. His Beach Scene, painted in the 1760s, is considered as an important work in establishing his artistic style.[4] His series of eleven India ink drawings of the city gates of Norwich, produced in 1792-3, were included in Robert Fitch's Views of the Gates of Norwich (1861).[5] The drawings, produced by Ninham using a camera obscura, are of interest to historians as they were made just before the gates were demolished by the city authorities.[6]

Ninham is considered to belong to the Norwich School of painters, but unlike many of the artists of the Norwich School, was neither a member of the Norfolk and Norwich Society of Artists, or exhibited his works there.[3] His works were exhibited 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.[7]

Life

Ninham's house in Norwich
View of Harwich, Essex
Cottage and River Scene (undated, Yale Center for British Art

Ninham was born on 15 October 1793,[8] one of eight children of John and Elizabeth Ninham. He was trained by his father as an engraver and a heraldic painter, only beginning to exhibit after 1815, when he was in his early twenties. He produced few watercolours, those he made being mainly reproductions of his oil paintings. He exhibited only sixteen paintings in fifteen years.[9]

When his father died in 1817, he was obliged to take over the family business. His etchings and other depictions of Norwich buildings have provided a valuable and accurate record of many of the city's buildings, some of which have since been demolished.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Dickes, The Norwich School of Painters, p. 558. According to Dickes, John Ninham's father came to England from Flanders following the revocation of the 1598 Edict of Nantes in 1685.
  2. ↑ Day, East Anglian Painters, volume 2, p. 184.
  3. 1 2 Moore, The Norwich School of Artists, p. 47.
  4. ↑ Moore, The Norwich School of Artists, p. 50.
  5. ↑ Fitch, Views of the Gates of Norwich.
  6. ↑ "Henry Ninham (Biographical details)". The British Museum. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
  7. ↑ Day, East Anglian Painters, volume 2, p. 184.
  8. ↑ Norwich Public Library Readers' Guide (1915), Volumes 4-6, p. 159.
  9. ↑ Clifford, Watercolours of the Norwich School, p. 55.s
  10. ↑ Walpole, Art and Artists of the Norwich School, p.134-135.

Bibliography

  • Clifford, Derek Plint (1965). Watercolours of the Norwich School. Cory, Adams & Mackay.
  • Day, Harold (1979). The Norwich School of Painters. Eastbourne Fine Art.
  • Dickes, William Frederick (1905). The Norwich school of painting: being a full account of the Norwich exhibitions, the lives of the painters, the lists of their respecitve exhibits and descriptions of the pictures. Norwich: Jarrold & Sons Ltd.
  • Fitch, Robert (1861). Views of the Gates of Norwich made in the years 1792-3 by the Late John Ninham. Norwich: Cundall, Miller and Leavins. ISBN 1-85149-261-5.
  • Moore, Andrew W. (1985). The Norwich School of Artists. HMSO/Norwich Museums Service.
  • Ninham, Henry. Fifteen Etchings by the late Henry Ninham 1875. Google Books.
  • Walpole, Josephine (1997). Art and Artists of the Norwich School. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-261-5.
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