John Callcott Horsley RA, A Pleasant Corner

A Pleasant Corner, 1865

John Callcott Horsley RA (1817 - 1903)

RA Collection: Art

Horsley was encouraged to become an artist by his uncle, Sir Augustus Wall Callcott RA, and entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1831. His early exhibited pictures were portraits and historical paintings influenced by Dutch 17th-Century masters such as Pieter de Hooch. However from the 1850s onwards Horsley turned to contemporary subjects, often painting the area around Cranbrook in Kent, which became a small artists’ colony. Thomas Webster moved there in 1857 followed by Horsley in 1861. Although the Cranbrook artists did not have a common philosophy they shared an interest in painting scenes of rural life.

A Pleasant Corner shows the inglenook of the Dining Room at Horsley's house, Willesley, which was remodelled by Richard Norman Shaw, RA, between 1864 and 1870, Shaw’s first domestic commission. The snowdrops in the vase allude to the season while the fire in the grate casts a warm glow in contrast to the cool winter light coming in through the window.

Object details

Title
A Pleasant Corner
Artist/designer
Date
1865
Object type
Painting
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions

768 mm x 571 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
03/944
Acquisition
Diploma Work given by John Callcott Horsley RA accepted 1865

Associated works of art

1 results

return to start
back

Start exploring the RA Collection

read more
  • Explore art works, paint-smeared palettes, scribbled letters and more...
  • Artists and architects have run the RA for 250 years.
    Our Collection is a record of them.
Start exploring