caption death_date death_place birth_place nationality name field birth_date works image article_title birth_name bgcolour
self portrait -lrb- c. 1751 -rrb- 28 october 1780 little urswick , cumbria , england little urswick , cumbria , england british james cranke painting 23 june 1707 '' of miss newnham , sister of lady ryder '' , portrait '' portrait of catherine fleming , lady leicester '' of miss parker '' , '' portrait james elder.jpg cranke the elder , by james cranke the james cranke
 james cranke #eedd 82
james cranke

james cranke -lrb- june 23 , 1707 -- october 28 , 1780 -rrb- was an english painter .
born at little urswick , near barrow-in-furness , he lived there for most of his life .
he was trained as a plasterer , but became a self-taught portrait painter and attempted to make his name in london c. 1737 -- 52 .
he attended st. martin 's lane academy and in 1744 he married a well-known heiress and opened his own studio in bloomsbury square .
several art historians have recognised that he may have been more prolific had ill health not forced him to return home .
his chosen medium was oil on canvas .
james cranke taught the well-known artist george romney -lrb- 1734 -- 1802 -rrb- how to paint when he was a small boy .
romney was born at beckside , dalton-in-furness , which was close to the home of the cranke family .
james cranke taught one of his sons , james cranke jr -lrb- 1746 -- 1826 -rrb- , to follow him as a portrait painter .
the success of james cranke and his son as portrait painters helped their family to become important local landowners .
steelworks in 1854 the furness railway persuaded their descendants to sell their rural estate at hindpool , and this enabled the development of barrow as a town to begin in earnest .
james cranke is also notable as the father of the mathematician john cranke .
an altar painting of the last supper by cranke can be seen at st mary and st michael 's church , great urswick .
