Cherryburn by J.W. Carmichael

Cherryburn Cottage by J W Carmichael

James John Wilson Carmichael (1799-1868) prolific landscape painter, is today mostly admired for his large dramatic seascapes. Born in Newcastle, married at Ryton not far from Cherryburn, examples of his pictures in oil and watercolour are held in major institutions here and abroad. The Laing Art Gallery and Trinity House have fine early examples.

 

Emulating his father, a shipwright, Carmichael was fortunate to secure an apprenticeship with Farrington Brothers as a carpenter; during the period they established a boat and shipbuilding business, sometime between 1810 and1820. Recognising his abilities, the Farringtons, who by one account are said to have given Carmichael his first box of water-colour paints, occasionally gave him the opportunity to assist in the drawing office.

 

In this enlightened atmosphere, Carmichael was exposed to a wide range of wood working skills: The firm's label, c. 1810, headed by a grand engraving of putti carving classical busts, reads: ‘FARRINGTONS, SHIP & HOUSE CARVERS, CABINET MAKERS, JOINERS, Looking Glass & Picture Frame Manufacturers & Gilders in General.’

 

Carmichael’s sweet little picture of Cherryburn dated 1838, although with larger trees and with additional detail, is much like John Bewick’s engraving dated 1781, found as a frontispiece to Thomas Bewick’s Memoir, 1862. 

 

The drawing, which measures 16cm x 23cm, is now conserved on acid free board; it still retains the original title, perhaps by the artist, inset below. A charming homage to TB ten years after his death, perhaps just a snapshot from times past.

 

In 1827 Carmichael, twice an exhibitor, and with a growing reputation – he had been painting in oils for about five years by then – joined Thomas and Robert Bewick on the committee of the Northumberland Institution for the Promotion of the Fine Arts. By the following year this grandiose Institution was wound up; and Thomas Bewick had died.

 

The original solid wood frame, (who knows, perhaps made by Carmichael), with gilded slip measures 27.5cm x 34cm. It has to its edge an intriguing, partially polished away, and only guessable contemporary ink inscription:‘Frame made of Thorne from old ….. ick’ [?] 

 

'near the House [Cherryburn] were two large Ash trees, from one Root but the top of one of them was blown away in high Wind, & another one, of the same kind, at a little distance from them – at the south end of the Premisses, was the spring Well, overhung by a large Hawthorne bush'

(A Memoir of Thomas Bewick, Written by Himself. 1862. Iain Bain edn. 1975)

 

 

Graham Carlisle