John Sell Cotman was a British painter best known for his distinctive watercolors of architectural features set amidst the English countryside. In his hallmark work Greta Bridge (c. 1805), Cotman employed washes of tonal color to great effect, creating subtle forms and light through built up layers within precise shapes. Born on May 16, 1782 in Norwich, United Kingdom, he was the son of a wealthy silk merchant who wanted his son to join the family business. Instead, Cotman moved to London, where he worked for a printmaker and met the painters J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Girtin. In 1806, the artist returned to Norwich and worked as drawing instructor. Cotman later moved to the town of Yarmouth in 1812, where he was employed as an archaeological...