John Laporte, landscape painter and etcher, born 1761, died 1839; P. La Cave, landscape painter (1922) (14579225898)

Identifier: johnlaportelands00long (find matches)
Title: John Laporte, landscape painter and etcher, born 1761, died 1839; P. La Cave, landscape painter
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Long, Basil S
Subjects: La Cave, P Laporte, John, 1761-1839
Publisher: London, Walker's Galleries
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto



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dy-colour is the large Forest Scene with Cattle^signed and dated 1790, in the Victoria andAlbert Museum (Plate 3). This landscape iswell constructed ; there is an excellent unity inthe effect of light, and the eye is carried oninsensibly from one plane to another until theextreme distance, which is full of detail, isreached. One seems to feel in this painting theinfluence of Hobbema or Wynants. The treat-ment of the wavy grasses in the foreground is oneof the characteristic touches which sometimeshelp to identify Laportes paintings (c/. Plate 2). His view of Wooldkatn Ferry, near Rochester(Plate 1) is typical of much of his work.He seems to have preferred lake and riverscenes, and a large proportion of his compo-sitions have a boat and figures in the foreground.The figures are only accessories, and lack theprecision and personality which artists likeDayes or Rooker gave to those which enliventheir landscapes. Laporte centres his intereston the scenery, and one feels that he derived 34
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^ J J 2 z ^ ~. .e y. ^ 1:3 :-73 >- 75 from it in its quieter moods a profound sensationof beauty and enjoyment, which he was oftenable to translate into his pictures. There is a small water-colour tree study byhim at South Kensington (No. D. 660—1887),which is on grey paper ; it seems to have beensketched roughly in pencil, and most of theoutlines were inked over; the drawing wasthen washed with Indian ink or some neutraltint, and with a yellowish green on the brancheswhich are supposed to catch the light. In 1834 Laporte exhibited at the New Water-Colour Society two pictures ** painted with theencaustic mixture discovered by Mrs. Hookerof Rottingdean. This lady, nee Emma JaneGreenland, seems first to have written on thesubject to the Society of Arts in 1786, and anaccount of her method appeared in the 10thvolume of the Societys transactions in 1792.From a more detailed description published in1807,^ it appears that for four months in 1792 shemade above 50 experiments per day, **