John Sell Cotman
landscape painter and architectural draftsman; b. June 11, 1782, (at Norwich, Norfolk, England) ; d. July 28, 1842.
He went to London in 1800 and exhibited at the Academy until 1807, when he returned to Norwich and became secretary of the Local society of artists. In 1812 he commenced the publication of his Architectural Antiquities of Norfolk, which was completed, five series in two volumes, in 1838. Cotman visited Normandy in 1817, 1818, and 1819; and in 1820 published the illustrations to Dawson Turner's Account of a Tour in Normandy (2 vols., London, 1820). He published also Engravings from Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk (2 vols., 1838).
Captain Isaac Damon
architect.
Damon studied architecture with Ithiel Town of New York, and was from 1812 to 1840 the leading architect in western Massachusetts. Among his works were the first church of Northampton (built 1811, burned in 1878), the first church of Springfield (about 1818, still standing), the church and county courthouse in Lenox (about 1814, still standing).
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François Rude
sculptor; b. 1784 (at Dijon, Cote d'Or, France); d. November 3, 1855.
Rude was the son of a coppersmith of Dijon. He studied art at the excellent school of Devosge in Dijon. In 1807 he went to Paris and was employed on the Colonne de la Grande Armée (Colonne Vendome). In 1812 he won the premier grand prix, but on account of the political disturbances of the time did not visit Rome. He went to Brussels (Belgium) where he made the Caryatides of the Théâtre Royal, the pediment of the Hôtel des Monnaies, etc. He returned to Paris in 1827, and in 1828 exhibited his statue of Mercury at the Salon (now in the Louvre). Rude executed a part of the frieze of the Arc de Triomphe de 1'Étoile (Paris). In 1832 Abel Blouet succeeded Huyot as architect of the arch. For him, largely at the suggestion of M. Thiers, Rude made four designs for the sculpture of the piers representing four subjects illustrative of war: Le Départ, Le Retour, La Défense du Sol, and La Paix. These drawings are now in the Louvre. Le Départ, the only one of the four which was carried out by Rude, is probably the most important monument of French sculpture. The three other groups were made by Cortot and Etex. In 1836 Rude made his statue of Maréchal de Saxe, now in the Louvre. In 1852 Rude opened an atelier for the instruction of pupils, which formed many important sculptors. Among his many works are the monument to Napoleon in a park at Fixin (France), the splendid reclining statue of Godefroy Cavaignac in the cemetery of Montmartre (finished 1847), and statues of Monge, Bertrand, and Ney.
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William, M.A., R.A. Wilkens
architect; b. 1778; d. August 31, 1839.
The eldest son of Henry Wilkens, the author of a book on Pompeii, published in Rome in 1819. In 1800 he graduated at Caius College, Cambridge. In 1801 he won a traveling scholarship, and spent four years in Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy. He erected various buildings in imitation of Greek architecture. Among the many works published by him are The Civil Architecture of Vitruvius, a translation, prefaced by a History of the Rise and Progress of Grecian Architecture (folio, 1812-1817), and Prolusiones Architectonicoe (4to, 1827).
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