Charles Calvert (painter)

For information about other persons with the name Charles Calvert, see Charles Calvert (disambiguation).

Charles Calvert (and family)
Manchester and Liverpool Railway Taken at Newton 1825
Born	1785[1] Glossop Hall in Derbyshire
Died	1852 Bowness, Westmoreland
Occupation	Landscape painter
Parents	Charles Calvert the elder

Charles Calvert (1785–1852) was a landscape-painter, born at Glossop Hall in Derbyshire, on 23 September 1785. He was the eldest son of Charles Calvert, agent of the Duke of Norfolk's estate and an amateur painter (see below). He was apprenticed to the cotton trade, and began busfness as a cotton merchant in Manchester, but against the wishes of his friends he abandoned commerce for art and became a landscape-painter.^[1][2]

Charles was one of those instrumental in the foundation of the Manchester Royal Institution (which has since become the Manchester City Art Gallery, and he gained the Heywood gold medal for a landscape in oil, and the Heywood silver medal for a landscape in water colour. Much of his time was necessarily devoted to teaching, but all the moments that could be spared from it were passed in the lake districts. Even in his later years, when confined to his bed by failing health, he occupied himself in recording his reminiscences of natural beauty.^[3] He died at Bowness-on-Windermere, Westmoreland, on 26 February 1852, and was buried there.

The Calvert Family

The father of the landscape-painter, Charles Calvert the elder, was an amateur. He was born in 1754 ; died on 13 June 1797, and is buried in St. Mary's churchyard, Manchester. Charles the elder would live in Oldham Street, Manchester during the winter and at Glossop Hall in the summer.^[4] Charles the elders younger brother, Raisley Calvert, who died in 1794, was a sculptor, and is well known as the friend and admirer of William Wordsworth, to whom he bequeathed 900 pounds. Raisley had been to Cambridge University with Wordsworth and he looked after Raisley on his deathbed as he died of consumption. Other sons of Charles Calvert the elder were Frederick Baltimore Calvert, Henry Calvert and Michael Pease Calvert who were all painters.^[1] Michael was the youngest of eight children and he was born five months after his fathers death in January 1798 in Derbyshire.^[4]

“Calvert! It must not be unheard by them
Who may respect my name, that I to thee
Owed many years of early liberty.
This care was thine when sickness did condemn
Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem."

- William Wordsworth ^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Dictionary of National Biography now in the public domain
2. ^ Pigot's Directory (1834) lists him as a landscape painter in Princess Street, Manchester
3. ^ Gentleman's Magazine accessed on line September 2007
4. ^ ^{a b} [The Admission Register of the Manchester School] by Jeremiah Finch Smith, Manchester (England). Grammar School - 1866 - accessed via Google books September 2007
5. ^ Raisley noted at Wordsworthcounty.com accessed September 2007

External sources

Persondata
Name	Calvert, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1785
Place of birth	Glossop Hall in Derbyshire
Date of death	1852
Place of death	Bowness, Westmoreland