Background

John Wilson Carmichael was born on June 9, 1800, in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. He was the eldest son of William Carmichael, a shipwright.

Since his early childhood, John spent a lot of time at the sea – he had travelled for three years on board of a ship sailing between Spain and Portugal.

Education

John Carmichael became a draughtsman apprentice at the shipbuilding firm of the River Tyne in 1814. He was taught the carpentry profession. However, he never exercised it.

Career

John Carmichael began his professional career at the early age. During the Peninsular War, he served as a cabin boy in the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom. There, he revealed his painting abilities.

After the War, John concentrated on art and started to earn his living as a drawing-master and miniature painter. The first historical canvas he sold was Fight between the Shannon and Chesapeake. It cost 13 guineas. The next painting titled the Bombardment of Algiers which he had produced for Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trinity House was more expensive – the artist obtained for it 40 guineas. Other significant commission of this period became View of Newcastle which provided the painter with 100 guineas.

Later, Carmichael met a landscape painter Thomas Richardson Senior with whom he established the painting studio in 1823. Two years later, John Carmichael demonstrated his artworks at his debut exhibition at the Northumberland Institution for the Promotion of Fine Arts.

Since 1835, he had regularly exhibited his canvases at the summer expositions of the Royal Academy till 1859. So, he showed there Conqueror towing the Africa off the Shoals of Trafalgar (1841) and The Arrival of the Royal Squadron (1843). From 1846 till 1862, the painter had participated at the shows by the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. Despite, he demonstrated his artworks at the Suffolk Street Gallery and the Northern Academy.

In 1838, Carmichael presented his Shipping in the Bay of Naples at the exposition organized by the Society of British Artists.

Soon, John Carmichael established himself as one of the most talented landscape painters.

During the Crimean War, he tried his hand as a war correspondent by depicting Baltic warfare theatre for The Illustrated London News in 1855. The artwork called The bombardment of Sveaborg, 9 August 1855 was later shown at the Royal Academy.

John Carmichael stopped his painting activity in 1862 after the early death of his son and moved to Scarborough, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom where he spent the rest of his life.

Despite his canvases, Carmichael wrote two books on painting. The first one titled The Art of Marine Painting in Water-Colours was published in 1859. Five years later, appeared the second one dubbed The Art of Marine Painting in Oil-Colours.

Achievements

• John Wilson Carmichael was a prolific artist who is regarded today as one of the most significant marine painters of the Victorian age.
  
  The painter’s heritage is preserved nowadays at the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Trinity House, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, Sunderland Art Gallery within the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens centre, in Sunderland, United Kingdom and in The Royal Collection of the British Royal Family.
  
  In 1982, the retrospective of Carmichael’s art was held at the Laing Art Gallery in his native Newcastle. The bicentenary of his birth was marked by the exhibition during the Newcastle Festival of 1999.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Art of Marine Painting in Water-colours 1859
  • The Art of Marine Painting in Oil-colours 1864

• painting

  • Shipping off Seaham

  • Cullercoats from the South

  • Saint Mary’s Island from Whitley Rocks

  • The Houses of Parliament in Course of Erection

  • The Bombardment of Sveaborg, in the Baltic, 9 August 1855

  • Roundhay Park

  • Her Majesty's Ship Erebus and Terror in the Antarctic

  • The Pursuit

  • Cullercoats Looking towards Tynemouth - Ebb Tide

  • The Bombardment of Sveaborg, 9 August 1855

  • Prior's Haven, Tynemouth

  • The Irwin Lighthouse, Storm Raging

  • Prior’s Haven, Tynemouth – Sunrise

  • The 78-Ton Brigantine ‘The Advocate’ off Saint Helier, Jersey

  • Off the Dutch Coast

  • Tynemouth Priory from the East

  • Squadron of Frigates and Fishing Vessels in a Choppy Sea off Holy Island

  • Madeira

  • Shipping off Gibraltar in heavy seas

  • A Breezy Evening of the Mouth of the Mersey

  • Tynemouth Priory from the East

  • Corby Viaduct, the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway

  • Victoria Bridge over the River Wear

  • The Bombardment of Sebastopol

  • Cullercoats Looking towards Tynemouth - Flood tide

  • The Shipyard at Hessle Cliff

  • Rowing to rescue shipwrecked sailors of the Northumberland Coast

  • The survey vessel Her Majesty's Ship Merlin narrowly escaping destruction by two Russian mines off Sveaborg early in August

  • The Pool of London

  • View of London with Saint Paul’s

  • ‘Erebus’ and the ‘Terror’ in New Zealand, August 1841

  • The Brayford Pool and Lincoln Cathedral

  • West Hartlepool in the Year

  • Fishing Boats off Scotland

  • Shields from the Harbour Mouth

  • The Building of the SS ‘Great Eastern’

  • Saltash Creek- Near Plymouth

  • The Ship Isabella at Sea

  • Shipping off Scarborough

Connections

John Wilson Carmichael married Mary Sweet in 1826.

The painter had a son and a daughter Annie. She became a wife of William Luson Thomas who founded a lot of British periodicals, the most known of which was The Graphic newspaper (1869). It had a great influence on the art world by the time.

Father:

William Carmichael

Spouse:

Mary Sweet

Daughter:

Annie Carmichael

colleague:

Thomas Miles Richardson

References

• Carmichael centenary exhibition: Laing Art Gallery
  1968