Farington, Joseph
Date Born/Est
21 Nov 1747
Date Died/Ceased
30 Dec 1821
Biographical Display
A landscape painter who moved to London in 1763 and spent several years working under Richard Wilson. He was a member of the Society of Artists from 1768 to 1773 and entered the R.A. Schools in 1769. In the summer of 1773, he an his brother George went to Houghton to draw the pictures which were later mezzotinted by Earlom and published by Boydell. In the late 1770s he returned to the North of England, remaining until 1781, during which time he sketched in the Lake District. In 1781 he moved back to London and he lived there, at the political heart of the art world, for the rest of his life. He was elected A.R.A. and R. A. in 1783 and 1785, and in 1793 he began to keep his diary, which is one of the most important sources of knowledge of arts of the period.
In his finished topographical drawings he first sketched his subject lightly in pencil, then added painstaking pencil black or brown ink outlines and finally grey or brown wash, with occasional local colour such as blue. The whole effect is careful and self controlled. His sketchbooks however show him in a freer and more dashing vein.
(Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists, Vol I. P 241)
In his finished topographical drawings he first sketched his subject lightly in pencil, then added painstaking pencil black or brown ink outlines and finally grey or brown wash, with occasional local colour such as blue. The whole effect is careful and self controlled. His sketchbooks however show him in a freer and more dashing vein.
(Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists, Vol I. P 241)
Place Of Birth
Leigh/Manchester/Greater Manchester/England
Place Of Death
Didsbury/Manchester/Greater Manchester/England
