John Linnell

Linnel, John
(London 1792 - 1882 Redhill/London)
Already as a child did John Linnel produce copies of George Morland, a much distinguished painter at that time. These copies were sold by Linnel' s father to increase his income as a gilder and wood carver. The landscape painter John Varley discovered the child' s talent and took the thirteen-year-old with him to have him trained at the Royal Academy, where Linnel studied landscape and portrait painting. In 1807 and 1810 he was awarded a prize and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the Old Water Colour Society from 1807 onwards until shortly before his death.Through the influence of the portrait painter and miniaturist James Holmes he turned to miniature painting. His first work, a miniature representing his wife, had been admired by the Marchioness of Stafford, who paved his way into the highest aristocratic circles. From then on he created portraits of renowned contemporaries in rapid succession; that of the Princess Sophia Matilda, King George IV' s sister being one of them. At the same time Linnel devoted himself successfully to the field of landscape painting.