page_title: Henry Ninham
section_title: Reputation and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Ninham / Reputation and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: A mural by John Moray-Smith of Needham Gate, St. Stephen's, Norwich, The mural is to be found on the outside wall of the Coachmakers Arms pub in Norwich. It is based on an etching by Henry Ninham.
context_page_description: Henry Ninham was an English landscape artist, engraver and heraldic painter. He and his father John Ninham belonged to the Norwich School of painters, a group of artists who all worked or lived in Norwich during all or part of their working lives from around 1800 to 1880. Along with the Norwich School artists John Thirtle and David Hodgson, he was the foremost recorder of Norwich's architectural heritage prior to the invention of photography.
  The son of John Ninham, who was one of the Norwich School's founding members, Ninham trained as a panel painter under his father and was taught art by John Crome. Throughout much of his adult life, he was directly involved in running the family printing business in Chapelfield Lane, Norwich. After a largely uneventful life, he died in Norwich in 1874.
  Ninham rarely travelled far from home to find new subjects. A skilled engraver, his works have provided historians with invaluable information regarding the appearance of many of Norwich's streets and medieval, Tudor and Georgian buildings prior to their demolition.
context_section_description: Henry Ninham did not publicise himself much as an artist, preferring for instance to advertise as a 'Teacher of Perspective' in exhibition catalogues. During the 1830s he gained a reputation for the quality of his engravings and etchings, and he became an important figure in the Norwich printmaking scene. In time his limited range of subjects and lack of any connections outside Norwich caused his reputation to become limited.
  He was thought highly of by the artist John Sell Cotman, who called him "a very clever painter". His works only attracted occasional interest in the local press, for instance when he was noted for his accurate and precise draughtsmanship by the Norwich Mercury, in an article dated 14 August 1824, which praised the "neat delineation" of his engravings. Following the announcement of his death in 1874, the Norfolk News wrote: "Mr. Ninham was at all times ready to impart his knowledge to others, and his kind and genial manner will, apart from his artistic abilities, cause him to be long remembered by all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance".
  The art historian Harold Day, writing in the 1960s, described Ninham as having a "pleasing painter with a delicate sense of colour and a controlled touch", and the art historian Josephine Walpole regards Ninham as more naturally talented than his father.
  He is recognised along with David Hodgson as the foremost recorder of Norwich's buildings from the 1840s. They sometimes etched the same buildings, as with the now demolished Sir Benjamin Wrenches Court, but Hodgson tended to be more interested in depicting ruins than his contemporary. Their views of Norwich have provided historians with a valuable and accurate record of the city's streets, as many buildings that they knew have since disappeared. The antiquary Dawson Turner, in attempting to produce a record of Norfolk’s architectural heritage, commissioned artists to illustrate Francis Blomefield’s History of Norfolk. He paid particular tribute to Ninham, who lent him many drawings to be copied.
  Several of Ninham's paintings have been sold at auction in recent years. Bishop’s Bridge, Norwich, which was sold in 2018, fetched £440 at Keys Auctions in Aylsham, Norfolk, a pair of watercolours Old Post Office Court, Norwich 1826 was sold at auction in 2011 by Bonhams for £1.375,  and £290 was fetched in 2017 for A Doorway.
  In 1937 the artist John Moray-Smith produced seven murals for display on the sides of pubs, each depicting one of the city's gates and closely following engravings by Ninham. Two of the murals, of the gates at Ber Street and St Stephen's Street, have survived.
caption: John Moray-Smith, Needham Gate (1937)
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