John Linnell was born in
Bloomsbury,
London on 16 June 1792, where his father was a carver and
gilder. He was in contact with artists from an early age, and by the age of ten was drawing and selling portraits in chalk and pencil. His first
art teacher was the American-born artist
Benjamin West, and he spent a year in the house of the painter
John Varley, where
William Hunt and
William Mulready were also pupils, and made the
acquaintance of
Shelley,
Godwin and others. In 1805 he was admitted to study at the
Royal Academy, where he obtained medals for drawing, modelling and sculpture. He was trained as an
engraver, and executed a transcript of Varley's "Burial of Saul." In 1808, the 16-year-old Linnell moved into Mulready's house, whose wife had accused him of infidelity with both other women and boys. Linnell's association with Mulready may have caused the breakup of Mulready's marriage. In 1817 Linnell married Mary Ann Palmer in Scotland and they had nine children together including their first born, Hannah Linnell, who later married the landscape painter
Samuel Palmer. In later life Linnell occupied himself with the
burin, publishing, in 1833, a series of outlines from
Michelangelo's frescoes in the
Sistine Chapel, and, in 1840, superintending the issue of a selection of plates from the pictures in
Buckingham Palace, one of them, a
Titian landscape, which he engraved in
mezzotint. At first he supported himself mainly by miniature painting and execution of larger portraits, such as the likenesses of Mulready,
Richard Whately, Peel and
Thomas Carlyle. Several of his portraits he engraved in line and mezzotint. He painted many subjects like the "St John Preaching", the "Covenant of Abraham", and the "Journey to Emmaus", in which, while the landscape is usually prominent the figures are of sufficient importance to supply the title of the work. However, it is mainly in connection with paintings of pure landscapes that his name is known. His works commonly deal with some scene of typical uneventful English landscape, which is made impressive by a gorgeous effect of sunrise or sunset. They are full of true poetic feeling, and are rich and glowing in colour. Linnell commanded large prices for his pictures, and about 1850 he purchased a property at
Redhill, Surrey, where he lived until his death on 20 January 1882, painting with unabated powers until within the last few years of his life. He devoted himself to painting landscapes notably of the
North Downs and
Kentish Weald. His leisure was occupied with a study of the
Bible in the
original language. He also published several pamphlets and treatises of
Biblical criticism. Linnell was one of the best friends and kindest patrons of
William Blake. He gave him the two largest commissions he received for single series of designs—£150 for drawings and engravings of
The Inventions to the Book of Job, and a like sum for those illustrative of
Dante Alighieri. He was a friend of the painter
Edward Thomas Daniell. A
blue plaque commemorates Linnell at Old Wyldes' at
North End,
Hampstead. The plaque mentions that William Blake stayed with Linnell as his guest. His eldest son
William Linnell (1826 – 1906) was also an artist most noted for his 1840 drawing of
Smugglerius, which is an
écorché sculpture of a man posed in imitation of the ancient Roman sculpture known as the
Dying Gaul. ==Gallery==