Beached Vessels and a Wagon near Trouville

Born near Nottingham, Richard Parkes Bonington moved with his family to Calais at age fifteen and then to Paris the following year. Although he trained briefly in the studio of the history painter Antoine Jean Gros, he seems to have been largely self-taught as a painter in oils and his inclination was toward landscape rather than history painting. His entire career as an oil painter lasted for only five years before he died of tuberculosis. But the brilliance, fluency, and sparkling naturalism of his paintings won considerable acclaim, and his reputation only grew after his early death.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2022