The English ‘Romantic’ landscape painter, Richard Parkes Bonington or Richard Bonington, was born on October 25, 1802, in Arnold, near Nottingham, England. The only child of Richard Bonington, an amateur painter and prison guard, and Eleanor Parks, a teacher, the artist showed an interest in drawing and acting from childhood. He gave the world an amazing mix of classic styles, delicately modernized.

Bonington’s father trained him in watercolor painting and at the tender age of 11 he had his first exhibition at the Liverpool Academy. After his father lost his job, the Boningtons decided to emigrate to Calais, France, in 1817. Here they opened a lace factory, and Richard simultaneously trained in English watercolours, with the painter François Louis Thomas Francia. In 1818, the Bonington family moved to Paris to start a lace retail store. Richard did not like working in the factory and he preferred to paint and draw. To pursue his artistic interests, he joined the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris for the session of 1819-22, against his father’s wishes, and studied under Baron Antoine-Jean Gros.

In Paris, Richard Bonington befriended Eugène Delacroix and also had the opportunity to learn watercolor painting from the famous painter François Louis Thomas France. In 1821, the painter traveled to Normandy with his friend and fellow student, Alexandre-Marie Colin. During his trip, he recorded scenes of fish markets and architectural ruins, and later sold his works to two Paris-based dealers. Richard Bonington had his first successful exhibition at the Salon in 1822, where the Société des Amis des Arts bought two of his paintings. His admirers included no less than artists of the highest caliber, such as Corot, Delacroix and Gros. At the age of 20, Richard traveled to Italy for eleven weeks with Baron Rivet and drew “The Leaning Tower, Bologna”. In 1823, he began work on his lithographic series on architectural ruins, “Restes et Fragmens”, which earned him a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1824.

Richards Bonington became influential in England and France, as a teacher of ‘romanticism’. His works were generally poetic in essence and were famous for their technicalities and vivid use of color. Richard considered Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), the leading artist of the French revolutionary era, as one of his greatest influences. Some of his most famous works were “The Port, Le Havre (1821)”, “La Seine A Mantes (1824)”, “Place Du Molard (1826)”, “The Bridge and the Abbey of St. Maurice d’Agaune (1826),” and “Remembrance of Venice (1828)”. Fate, however, bit hard on the emerging phenomenon named Richard Parkes Bonington. Tuberculosis, along with work stress and heat stroke, claimed his life at the young age of 26, on September 23, 1828, in London.