The Painting
A watercolour measuring 6½" x 9½". Signed J.T. Nettleship and dated [18]90.
About the Artist
John Trivett Nettleship (1841-1902) was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, the
second son of Henry John Nettleship, a solicitor in the local firm of Lamb and Stringer.
HeJohn was educated at Durham school, and after devoting a brief period of his life
to the Law, studied painting at Heatherley’s and at the Slade School in London. According
to Sir Alfred East, when Nettleship ‘seriously began art work it was soon apparent
that his most marked talent was as a delineator of animals, especially savage wild
animals, and he soon began, and continued for many years, to work at the Zoological
Gardens [London Zoo], where he made the studies for the greater number of his paintings.’
He became widely known as a painter of animals and exhibited regularly at the Royal
Academy, Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, the Grosvenor Gallery and the
New Gallery. He married the daughter of James Hinton, aural surgeon, in 1876. Their
eldest daughter Ida married the painter Augustus John. Nettleship died in 1902, at
his residence in Wigmore Street, London, aged 61.
The Subject
An American Black Bear (Ursus americanus).
