John Augustus Atkinson

Retreat of the French Grand Army from Moscow, intercepted by Russian Cossack, 1812, published January 1813.

John Augustus Atkinson (1775–1833) was an English artist, engraver and watercolourist.

Life

Atkinson was born in London. In 1784, he went to St. Petersburg to his uncle James Walker, engraver to the empress Catherine the Great^[1] There he studied in the picture galleries, encouraged by Catherine and her son Paul I and was commissioned by Paul to paint large pictures of Russian history.

In 1801, Atkinson returned to England, and in 1803 published A Picturesque Representation of the Manners, Customs, and Amusements of the Russians, in 100 plates, drawn and etched by himself. He also painted in watercolours and in 1808 was elected to the Society of Painters in Water Colours.^[2] Many of his works, during the Napoleonic wars, were of naval subjects. He painted many battle scenes including a Battle of Waterloo, which was engraved by John Burnet.

His last contribution to the Royal Academy exhibition was in 1829. The date of his death is not recorded but his will was dated 1830^[3] and he was still alive in 1831.

Selected works

Sailors at Prayer on board Lord Nelson's Ship (after the Battle of the Nile)

British Sailors Boarding a Man of War - depicting the recapture of HMS Hermione by the crew of HMS Surprise

• Carriage on Sledges 1803 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia^[4]
• A Russian Village 1804 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia
• Golubtza 1804 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia
• Village Amusements 1804 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia
• Scene from Tom Jones Courtauld Institute of Art, London^[5]
• The Slack Rope Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• A Belgian Waggon with Four Horses Tate Gallery, London^[6]
• Illustrations to Ossian The Huntington Library, California^[7]
• Heaving a Lead 1807 National Maritime Museum^[8]
• Greenwich Pensioners 1808 National Maritime Museum
• Skating, 1810 Tyne & Wear Museums, England^[9]
• Ships of the Reign of King Edward IV 1812 - Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
• 42nd Highlanders at Waterloo Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• British Sailors Boarding a Man of War 1815 National Maritime Museum

References

1. Ottley, William Young (1831). Notices of engravers and their works, the commencement of a dictionary which it is not intended to continue. p. 147.(Walker is referred to variously as uncle, step father and father in law)
2. The 'old' Water-Colour Society, 1804-1904 (1905)
3. National Archives Public Record Office - Probate Court of Canterbury
4. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
5. Courtauld Institute of Art
6. Tate Gallery
7. The Huntington Library, California
8. National Maritime Museum
9. Tyne & Wear Museums Database

This article incorporates text from the article "ATKINSON, John Augustus" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.