KJ's Trip to Yale Center for British Art

I found myself drawn to several paintings, one of which was the work of John Linnell, a well-known English landscape painter. He was born into an artist family. Linnell's father was a carver and gilder. He met John Varley (the distinguished landscape painter who became his teacher. After a year he became a student of the Royal Academy School at the age of 13. He was a very diverse artist and engraver painting with oils and watercolors. While at the Academy, he received a medal for drawing from life and for life modeling.
Although he made a good living as a portrait painter, he still had a passion for landscape painting which he decided to dedicate his time to in the late 1840s. Linnell was a deeply religious man who also painted Biglical landscapes in addition to his home in Surrey. He was a very successful painter and recognized and encouraged talent such as William Blake's work and 17 year old Samuel Palmer. He also supported the Pre-Raphaelites (Rossetti, Holman Hunt and Millais). The Pre-Raphaelites what they called the mechanistic approach to painting. They favored detail and intense color. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood Linnell married Mary Ann Palmer (not related to Samuel Palmer) and they had nine children of which three of his sons also became artists. His oldest daughter, Hannah, married Samuel Palmer. The painting above is called "The Shephard Boy" http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/linnell/biography.htm
Here is one of Samuel Palmer's works:
The Shephard Boy painting depicts Linnell's attention to detail with a figure of a boy piping surrounded by a flock of sheep. When I first noticed this picture, it looked like an old man instead of a boy, but when you look at the facial features, you see it is a boy. The coloring is subtle and smoothly painted. It has a rustic look to it which is probably what drew me to it as well as my love for animals. When you look at the painting the brush strokes are not really that smooth, but when looking at it more from a distance it appears to be smooth. It is a very peaceful scene.