Bristol School

The Bristol School (or Bristol School of Artists) is a term applied retrospectively to describe the informal association and works of a group of artists working in Bristol, England, in the early 19th century. It was mainly active in the 1820s, although the origins and influences of the school have been traced over the wider period 1810–40. During the period of his participation in the activities of the Bristol School, Francis Danby developed the atmospheric, poetical style of landscape painting which then initiated his period of great success in London in the 1820s.

The school initially formed around Edward Bird some years before his death in 1819. Having arrived in Bristol from Ireland in 1813,Francis Danby was a participant from around 1818–19 and remained connected to the group for around a decade, although he left Bristol for London in 1824. Other artists involved were Edward Villiers Rippingille, Samuel Jackson, James Johnson, Nathan Cooper Branwhite, William West, James Baker Pyne and Paul Falconer Poole.

Amateur artists also participated. These included John Eagles, Francis Gold and his brother Henry, the surgeon John King and George Cumberland. Cumberland was a friend of William Blake and of many important members of the Royal Academy. Patrons of the school included the antiquarian George Weare Braikenridge and the industrialists John Gibbons, Daniel Wade Acraman and Charles Hare.

The group conducted evening sketching meetings and sketching excursions to scenic locations around Bristol, in particular the Avon Gorge, Leigh Woods, Nightingale Valley and Stapleton Valley. Works by the group often featured these locations. A variation on this theme is The Avon Gorge from the summit of the Observatory (1834), an oil painting by West from the vantage point of his own observatory on Clifton Down. Depictions of excursions taking place in these landscapes include Danby's View of the Avon Gorge (1822), Johnson's The Entrance to Nightingale Valley (1825), and Rippingille's Sketching Party in Leigh Woods (c. 1828). Imaginary, fantasy landscapes in monochrome wash were common subjects of the evening meetings, usually taking inspiration from the Bristol scenery.

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