1779-1862

From The Art of Shakespeare 

Nowhere is the Rococo spirit in literary painting more clearly exhibited than in the delicate canvases of John Cawse. Cawse was born in London in 1779. He is best remembered for his graceful paintings depicting literary subject matter based on the works of celebrated English authors including Shakespeare, Dickens, and Sir Walter Scott. Cawse, who was originally trained as a political caricaturist, began his professional career at the turn of the nineteenth century. He exhibited at the principal London galleries from 1801 until 1845 including the prestigious Royal Academy, the British Institution, Suffolk Street, the Old Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of British Artists. 

Cawse was a highly prolific and versitile artist. His early exhibtions for the Academy included a number of accomplished portraits and genre pieces. He was also an extremely talented horse painter who for a time earned his living as a sporting artist. However, it was clearly in the depiction of literary subjects that Cawse found his artistic niche. Beginning in 1818 Cawse turned almost exclusively to literary painting. Many of his notable Shakespeareas subjects were shown at the Royal Society of British Artists. These included a number of scenes from the historical plays most notably Henry IV, Part I and Henry V. 

Stylistically, these works are related to the graceful curvilinear and highly theatrical tradition of eighteenth century book illustration which was influenced by the French dominated Rococo Movement of the early eighteenth century. The elegantly attired figures in Cawse's paintings wear costumes deriving from the the theatre of the day and his paintings tend to exhibit a theatrical quality that was extremely popular during the early Victorian era....

He died in London on January 19, 1862.