Lakenham, Near Norwich

John Sell Cotman|Henry George Bohn

1838 · Soft-ground etching · Drawings and Prints

Bright sunlight casts the shadow of a small girl onto a cottage wall as she plays with a dog. The patches of plaster that have fallen away reveal patterned boards beneath and reflect Cotman’s delight in the decayed irregularity of old buildings. The rustic architectural forms also echo those in his earlier watercolor Farm Building by a Pond (ca. 1808–11), on view nearby. Here the soft-ground etching technique enabled him to adapt into print the tones and patterns characteristic of his graphite drawings.

Artist

John Sell Cotman|Henry George Bohn

Date

1838

Medium

Soft-ground etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1922