Peter de wint biography for kids
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Peter De Wint
De Wint was born at Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, the son of a physician of Dutch ancestry who had come to England from New York. He moved to London in 1802, and was apprenticed to John Raphael Smith, the mezzotintengraver and portrait painter. He bought his freedom from Smith in 1806, on condition that he supply eighteen oil paintings over the following two years. In 1806 he visited Lincoln for the first time, with the painter of historical subjects William Hilton, whose sister Harriet he married in 1810. De Wint and Hilton lived together in Broad Street, Golden Square, where John Varley also lived. Varley gave De Wint further lessons and introduced him to Dr Monro, who ran an informal academy for young artists.
De Wint first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807, and the following year at the Gallery of Associated Artists in Watercolours. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1809. He was elected an Associate of the Old Watercolour Society in 1810 and was made a full
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Peter de Wint was born in Stone in Staffordshire, the son of a doctor of Dutch extraction who had emigrated from New York to England to study medicine. Peter was intended to follow his father’s yrke, but instead he became an artist: in 1802 he went to London as an apprentice to the engraver John Raphael Smith. In 1806 he broke his apprenticeship for the price of 18 oil paintings and set up in a studio with his fellow-student William Hilton. It was at this time that he was introduced to Dr Thomas Monro, at whose house he studied, and there he came under the spell of the watercolours of Turner and Girtin.
In 1810 dem Wint was accepted as an associate member of the Old Water-Colour Society. He then drifted away from oil painting to watercolours, which was to become his medium.
De Wint was only to make one trip aboard (to Normandy in 1818) and declared that England offered all he needed in subjects to paint. Ever a searcher after truth, it is evident that his ‘Englishness’ gave
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Happy Days – the Landscapes of Peter de Wint
What do you think when you look at the image above? Most fans of Peter de Wint’s work see exquisite tranquillity and luminosity. That wide sky, the golden corn, the vast expanse of landscape beyond.
Here we have the story of a happy and contented man, living a happy and contented life. Not a typical tale from the artists’ archives, as we usually hear of poverty, penury and unrequited passion. But as we head into a dark, wet Autumn, why not celebrate a bit of harvest happiness?
Peter de Wint had been intended for the medical profession. His father was a doctor, and ran an apothecary in Stone, Staffordshire where de Wint was born. But the budding artist managed to persuade his father that medicine was not his path, and he was apprenticed to artist John Raphael Smith. Even before his training was complete, de Wint was making a modest living from his art, painting landscapes, and this continued throughout his career.