James Jackson Curnock

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James Jackson Curnock (9 June 1839 – 17 November 1891) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic style. He became well known for his watercolour notebooks of Wales, though he also painted scenes in Cornwall, Dartmoor, Scotland and other places.

Born in Bristol, he was the son of portrait painter James Curnock. He lived at Richmond Hill in Clifton with his widowed mother Sarah and sister Alice. Around 1865 he served as an officer cadet in a British Hussar regiment.

Curnock’s Welsh landscapes capture lakes, mountains and river valleys of Snowdonia, such as Tryfan, Carnedd Dafydd, the Llynnau, the Glyderau, and the valleys of the Llugwy, Mawddach and Lledr, with lakes like Glaslyn and Llyn Idwal. He also painted the glens and moors of Scotland, the Cornish coast, Dartmoor and English river valleys.

He gained recognition during his career. The Art Journal praised him in 1867, and in 1871 he was described as “a rising young painter.” He exhibited at the Royal Academy 11 times between 1873 and 1889, and showed in London exhibitions about 114 times. He was made a Fellow of the Society of Artists (FSA). John Ruskin praised his The Llugwy at Capel Curig in 1875 for its attentive and refined landscape.

In 1879 his works The Llugwy and Moel Siabod were listed at £100 each at the Yorkshire Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition. He became Associate Member of the Royal Cambrian Academy in 1884 and full member in 1885, and he exhibited at the RCA in Cardiff in 1884 with Clearing up after rain, North Wales and Trifaen.

Curnock died on 17 November 1891 in Bristol, aged 52. He is buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery. The Bristol Art Gallery held a major exhibition of his work in 1906, including A Welsh Moor and View in Wales. His paintings still appear at auction, often for modest prices; Clifton Gorge sold for £3,450 at Christie’s in 1998 and Cattle on a Highland Path for £2,160 at Bonhams in 2008.