John Cleveley the Younger
Encyclopedia
John Cleveley the Elder
John Cleveley the Elder was an English marine artist. Not from an artistic background, Cleveley's father intended him to follow the family trade of joinery, and so he set up as a carpenter or shipwright in around 1742 at the Deptford Dockyard...
. He and his twin brother Robert
Robert Cleveley
Robert Cleveley was an English maritime painter.His father and twin brother were also artists, with John the Younger gaining some training in watercolours from Paul Sandby, previously a teacher at the Royal...
were both, like their father, marine painters. John and Robert were both brought up and trained in dockyards, but (particularly by producing pictures especially for print reproduction) addressed much wider audiences with their art than their father had done.
He trained under the artist Paul Sandby
Paul Sandby
Paul Sandby was an English map-maker turned landscape painter in watercolours, who, along with his older brother Thomas, became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768.-Life and work:...
at Woolwich. He was Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
' draughtsman on his journey to the Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
, Orkney, and Iceland, his sketches were worked into watercolour, some of which were placed with the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. John was employed to turn drawings made on Captain Cook’s second voyage to the South Seas (1772–75) into engravings, and later also got access to some of the art produced on the third voyage, 1776-80 (via his brother James, who was a carpenter on the third voyage). Despite going on neither expedition personally, John moved fast to cash in on the new demand for South Seas images, producing images for the print market such as the Death of Cook
Death of Cook
Death of Cook is the name of several paintings depicting the 1779 death of British explorer and European discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook at Kealakekua Bay. Most of these paintings seem to go back to an original by John Cleveley the Younger, painted in 1784, although other...
, and HMS Resolution
HMS Resolution (Cook)
HMS Resolution was a sloop of the Royal Navy, and the ship in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific...
and at Moorea
Moorea
Moʻorea is a high island in French Polynesia, part of the Society Islands, 17 km northwest of Tahiti. Its position is . Moʻorea means "yellow lizard" in Tahitian...
.
John the Younger painted the Royal Dockyards at Deptford, Woolwich and Chatham (e.g. the hand-coloured print A view of His Majesty’s dockyard at Chatham, showing a naval ship being floated out, a launching scene common in the work of both father and son; and Launch of HMS Alexander
HMS Alexander (1778)
HMS Alexander was a Royal Navy 74-gun third-rate. This ship of the line was launched at Deptford on 8 October 1778. During her career she was captured by the French, and later recaptured by the British. She fought at the Nile in 1798, and was broken up in 1819...
at Deptford in 1778). However, John the Younger's launch scenes abandon John the Elder's documentary style and its stiffness, and instead show a more atmospheric, open view, with low horizons reminiscent of 17th century Dutch Golden Age
Dutch Golden Age
The Golden Age was a period in Dutch history, roughly spanning the 17th century, in which Dutch trade, science, military and art were among the most acclaimed in the world. The first half is characterised by the Eighty Years' War till 1648...
marine art. The son's range of subjects was also far wider.