Background
Linnell was born in Bloomsbury, London. His father was a carver and gilder and Linnell was brought into contact with artists from an early age, and was drawing and selling portraits in chalk and pencil at the age of 10.
Linnell was born in Bloomsbury, London. His father was a carver and gilder and Linnell was brought into contact with artists from an early age, and was drawing and selling portraits in chalk and pencil at the age of 10.
He had a taste for Northern European art of the Renaissance, particularly Albrecht Dürer. He also associated with William Blake, to whom he introduced Samuel Palmer and others of the Ancients. In 1805 he was admitted a student of the Royal Academy, where he obtained medals for drawing, modelling and sculpture.
He was trained as an engraver, and executed a transcript of Varley"s "Burial of Saul."
In later life he occupied himself with the burin, publishing, in 1833, a series of outlines from Michelangelo"s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, and, in 1840, superintending the issue of a selection of plates from the pictures in Buckingham Palace, one of them, a Titian landscape, which he engraved in mezzotint.
At first he supported himself mainly by miniature painting and execution of larger portraits, such as the likenesses of Mulready, Richard Whately, Peel and Thomas Carlyle. Several of his portraits he engraved in line and mezzotint.
He painted many subjects like the "Street John Preaching," the "Covenant of Abraham," and the "Journey to Emmaus," in which, while the landscape is usually prominent the figures are of sufficient importance to supply the title of the work. But it is mainly in connexion with paintings of pure landscapes that his name is known.
They are full of true poetic feeling, and are rich and glowing in colour.
Linnell commanded large prices for his pictures, and about 1850 he purchased a property at Redhill, Surrey, where he lived till his death on 20 January 1882, painting with unabated powers until within the last few years of his life. He devoted himself to painting landscapes notably of the North Downs and Kentish Weald. His leisure was occupied with a study of the Bible in the original, and he published several pamphlets and treatises of Biblical criticism.
He gave him the two largest commissions he received for single series of designs—£150 for drawings and engravings of The Inventions to the Book of Job, and a like sum for those illustrative of Dante Aligheri.
A blue plaque commemorates Linnell at Old Wyldes" at North End, Hampstead. The plaque mentions that William Blake stayed with Linnell as his guest.
Linnell has over 150 oil paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom.