Charles Coleman

Although Chalres Caryl Coleman spent most of his life in Italy, he exhibited in the Unites States and England. Early in his career he executed a number of portraits and figure paintings; later he specialized in landscape and architectural subjects. Coleman was born in 1840 in Buffalo, New York. He studied art there under William H. Beard, then spent the years 1859 in Paris. Her returned to the United States to serve in the Union force during the Civil War, in which he was seriously wounded. In 1866, Coleman returned to Europe with fellow painters William Morris Hunt and Elihu Vedder. He spent time in Paris and Brittany before moving to Rome, where he lived in the apartment that had been occupied by poet John Keats. Eventually Coleman settled in Capri, neat Naples. He remained there for the rest of his life. One of Coleman's favorite subjects was Mt. Vesuvius, which was visible from his villa on the island of Capri; Coleman portrayed the volcano's disturbances and their effect on the landscape and the Bay of Naples with great fidelity. His treatments of this view include Vesuvius from Pompeii (date unknown, Detroit Art Institute of Arts) and The Vesuvius Eruption of 1906 (date unknown, Brooklyn Museum of Art). Coleman worked not only in oils but also in watercolor and pastels. While he did not execute many still lifes, his floral paintings were recognized for their skillful composition and use of color. Coleman died in Capri in 1928.

Charles Coleman Images:
Decorative Floral Panel