page_title: James Sillett
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: James Sillett / Background
context_page_description: James Sillett was an English still life and landscape artist. He showed himself to be one of the most versatile of the Norwich School of painters: although the great majority of his works were still lifes and landscapes, he was also a drawing master and a miniaturist. His botanical paintings illustrations have been praised for their accuracy and attention to detail. These and his still life paintings are considered to be his best work, with some experts ranking him with William Jackson Hooker, whose illustrations were both accurate and charming. Sillett's own accurate depictions of plants were often used for book illustrations. His paintings often have an academic style, influenced by the masters of the eighteenth century in a way that set him apart from his Norwich contemporaries. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1796 and 1837.
  Born and educated in Norwich, where he spent much of his career, Sillett initially worked as an apprentice to a Norwich heraldic painter before moving to London, where he was employed as a copyist by the Polygraphic Society. Together with the Norwich artist William Capon, he painted scenery at Drury Lane and Covent Garden.
context_section_description: The Norwich School of painters, which included Sillett, was a group connected by geographical location, the depiction of Norwich and rural Norfolk, and by close personal and professional relationships. The school's most important artists were John Crome, Joseph Stannard, George Vincent, Robert Ladbrooke, James Stark, John Thirtle and John Sell Cotman. Norwich, the first English city outside London where such a school arose, had more local-born artists than anywhere outside the capital. Its theatrical, artistic, philosophical and musical cultures were cross-fertilised in a way that was unique for a provincial city.
  The Norwich Society of Artists, which many members of the Norwich School belonged to, arose from the need for a group of Norfolk artists to teach each other and their pupils. Founded in 1803, it was key in establishing the artists' associations with each other. Its stated aims were "to conduct an Enquiry into the Rise, Progress and Present State of Painting, Archaeology and Sculpture with a view to point out the Best Methods of Study to attain to Greater Perfection in these Arts". It held regular exhibitions at Sir Benjamin Wrenches Court and elsewhere, and had an organised structure, showing works annually until 1825 and again from 1828 until its dissolution in 1833.
  The leading spirits and the finest artists of the Norwich School of painters were Crome and Cotman. Interest in paintings by its artists declined during the 1830s, but the school's reputation rose after the Royal Academy's 1878 Winter Exhibition. However, by the end of the century, their works were seen by many as having belonged to a bygone age.
caption: Ninham's etching of Sir Benjamin Wrenches Court
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