John Wilson Carmichael

Who was John Wilson Carmichael?

James Wilson Carmichael, a marine painter, was born at Newcastle upon Tyne about 1800. From constantly seeing so much shipping, he obtained at an early age great accuracy of drawing in this line of art, and among his earliest paintings produced a very fine picture, The Heroic Exploit of Admiral Collingwood at the Battle of Trafalgar, which was placed in the Trinity House, Newcastle. His name first appears as an exhibitor in 1838, when he contributed an oil picture, Shipping in the Bay of Naples, to the Society of British Artists. He exhibited at the Royal Academy both in oil and water-colours, contributing among others, in 1841, 'The Conqueror towing the Africa off the Shoals of Trafalgar;' and, in 1843, The Arrival of the Royal Squadron. He was the author of the series of English Coast Views from the Mouth of the Thames to the Firth of Forth. He lived in Newcastle until about 1845, when he moved to London, where he was already known as a skillful marine painter. At the commencement of the Russian war he proceeded on board one of her Majesty's ships to the Baltic; and on his return several of the sketches made by him during his absence were published as engravings in the Illustrated London News. He later moved to Scarborough, where he died in 1868.