John Dugmore of Swaffham was a British draughtsman and grand-tourist.
Background
In 1820, Dugmore accompanied in the Grand Tour a son of Charles Keppel, perhaps George Thomas (1799-1891), later 6th Earl of Albermarle, Viscount of Bury and Baron of Ashford, who made a brilliant military career (started at Waterloo) as well as was a memorialist, a distinguished collector and a member of the English Society of Antiquaires.
Career
He realized at least 130 drawings and watercolours, most of them in Germany, France and Italy. Born in a Norfolk noble family, he had a deep classical education. Renowned for his taste in arts, he moved to London to seek his fame and fortune at the Royal Court, where he met his ‘patron’, William Charles Keppel (1772-1849), 4th Earl of Albermarle.
Dugmore was probably responsible for Keppel children's education.
They moved from Scotland to Western Bohemia, France, Switzerland and Italy. In around 20 months, Dugmore fixed on paper everything was surprising him, mostly mountains, lakes, rivers and other natural beauties.
Sometimes he sketches a strange architecture or an historical place, for instance the cell in the Great Saint Bernard Hospice where Napoleon slept during the cross of the Alps (1800) or the Clermont Castle, former residence of Blaise Pascal. Dugmore"s urban landscapes are visual witnesses of the shape of many main and minor European cities, among them Paris, Vichy, Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Schandau, Tivoli, Susa, Florence, Siena.
Dugmore is relevant for his ability in feeling and amplifying the esthetic news which he was meeting place by place.
Foreign instance, his ‘German’ drawings are very linear and pure. On the opposite side his ‘French’ drawings are ‘touched’ by pencil and brush in a way that seems largely to anticipate the impressionist idea of the light. Three works by Dugmore are included in the Progetto Linea, a large private project for increasing the paper cabinets in Italian public museums of art