John Linnell - The Dusty Road

signed and dated l.l: J Linnell/1869/72; signed and inscribed on a Royal Academy Old Masters Exhibition label attached to the reverse
oil on canvas
71 by 99 cm., 28 by 39 in.

John Linnell was born in Bloomsbury; the second son of a picture framer, he entered the Royal Academy in 1805, aged thirteen years after training under John Varley. He became a successful landscape artist in the post-Turner era and worked closely with artists such as Samuel Palmer, William Mulready and William Henry Hunt.
His meeting with William Blake in 1818 was to have a profound effect on his work, infusing his landscapes with a strong religious fervour. He rarely ventured out of England, prefering to remain at his home in Redhill, Surrey, painting the local countryside.