Miles Edmund Cotman

1810 - 1858

Miles Edmund Cotman was the son of John Sell Cotman, who taught him to paint. He first exhibited with the Norwich Society at the age of thirteen, and by the time of the society's closure in 1833 had shown sixty works. Some of his early watercolours were continental scenes, based on prints or watercolours and drawings by his father, such as the present example. When his father left to take up his teaching post at King's College School in London, Cotman took over his practice as a drawing-master in Norwich. Once the family home in St Mary-at-Palace Plain had been sold, however, he moved to London to assist his father, while his younger brother, John Joseph, who had accompanied his father to London, returned to take over the Norwich teaching practice. Sometimes he collaborated with his father on paintings and drawings, and stood in for him during illnesses and absences, and succeeded to the post at King's following John's death in 1842.