Romantics in the Channel Islands

Now on at Jersey Museum


For a commentary on the exhibition

The Romantic movement which flourished in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, has great relevance today. Not only did painters such as Turner, poets like William Blake and Lord Byron and novelists as enduring as Jane Austen help to create the modern world, their legacies influence how we now perceive the arts and the environment.

The Channel Islands rugged coastlines, extreme weather, atmospheric light and lush interiors were perfect ingredients for the early 19th century Romantics. This exhibition in association Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, will bring together for the first time the work of many of the artists such as John Le Capelain in Jersey, Peter Le Lievre in Guernsey and Sarah Louise Kilpack who were inspired by local scenes. It will also explore Romanticism in other art forms and will include the work of one of the Channel Islands most famous exiles, Victor Hugo.

Shore Scene with Vraic Cart
watercolour
John Le Capelain

John Le Capelain (1812-1848) was often compared to the artist
J M W Turner, and was sometimes referred to as ‘the Jersey Turner’, reflecting their shared spirit of emotional connection with nature. Like Turner, Le Capelain did not make a direct copy of the landscape, but rather tried to convey how the landscape made him feel. Churning seas and ominous skies, storm clouds, breaking sunshine and the vigorous painting of waves, all created a landscape that was moving and changing, but could also be calm and still.

John Le Capelain was born in Hill Street, St Helier in October 1812. His father, Samuel, was a printmaker, and it may indeed have been Samuel who encouraged and helped his son develop as an artist. He received no formal art training, but at the age of 17 painted a watercolour which was then transformed into a lithograph and printed in Moss’s Views of the Channel Islands. He received some attention locally and enjoyed an influential circle of wealthy, middle-class friends. He exhibited in two London exhibitions, firstly in 1833 at the New Society of Painters in Watercolours in Bond Street, London and later in 1842 at the Royal Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street. During these exhibitions he was exhibiting alongside leading artists such as J M W Turner, John Constable, John Sell Cotman and William Callow.

In need of a wider audience, and seeking more inspiration, Le Capelain travelled throughout France and Great Britain. In 1838 he was known to have been sketching in Southampton and Granville. In 1841 and 1843 he painted in Scotland. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Jersey in September 1846 and Le Capelain was commissioned to paint a series of 26 watercolours which were later presented to Her Majesty. The portfolio consisted of a frontispiece, six representations of the Royal visits and 19 watercolours of local scenes. They so impressed the Queen that she commissioned Le Capelain to paint a series of views of the Isle of Wight. Whilst there he caught tuberculosis and died at the young age of 36. His watercolour landscapes and seascapes captured the spirit and feeling of the Island with a delicate sensitivity, conveying in a visual form the artist’s emotional connection with his birthplace.