# Richard Parkes Bonington artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/richard-parkes-bonington/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T18:45:13.008Z
Quality: medium confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1802-10-25
- Death date: 1828-09-23
- Nationality: English
- Movements: Romanticism, English Romantic landscape painting in a Franco-British context
- Common media: Oil painting, Watercolour, Rapid outdoor oil sketches, or pochades, Lithography

## Portrait

![Richard Parkes Bonington](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Richard_Parkes_Bonington_by_Margaret_Sarah_Carpenter_%28n%C3%A9e_Geddes%29.jpg/1280px-Richard_Parkes_Bonington_by_Margaret_Sarah_Carpenter_%28n%C3%A9e_Geddes%29.jpg)
Margaret Sarah Carpenter · Public domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Parkes_Bonington_by_Margaret_Sarah_Carpenter_(n%C3%A9e_Geddes).jpg

## About Richard Parkes Bonington

Richard Parkes Bonington (1802–1828) was an English Romantic painter whose short career unfolded largely in France. His family settled in Calais, and he later studied in Paris with Antoine-Jean Gros, forming a friendship with Eugène Delacroix. Bonington became known above all for landscapes, especially coastal views shaped by luminous skies, atmospheric weather, and fluid handling. He worked in both oil and watercolour, and his rapidly painted outdoor oil sketches helped establish a taste for direct studies of changing natural effects. Historical costume scenes also connect him to the Romantic circle around Delacroix. His landscapes drew notice at the Paris Salon of 1824, where he received a gold medal, and a 1826 journey to Italy produced important Venetian subjects. Because he died before his twenty-sixth birthday, his body of work is compact but varied. Collectors may encounter finished paintings, small oil studies, watercolours, and prints associated with his designs.

## Common works and media

Commonly encountered works include oil paintings and small oil sketches, watercolours, coastal and French landscape subjects, Venetian views, and small historical costume scenes. Prints and lithographic material may also appear, including later impressions or works made after Bonington. Attribution wording, inscriptions, condition, and the relationship between a print and its source design should therefore be read closely.

## Market and appraisal context

Bonington's auction results span finished oils, watercolours, works on paper, prints, and objects carrying different levels of attribution. Appraisal should therefore begin with a close match for medium, support, dimensions, subject, date, and the work's place within his brief career. Condition, fading, restoration, inscriptions, signatures, and documentary provenance can materially affect comparability. Catalogue references and exhibition history may help distinguish a well-documented work from a copy, follower, or later impression. Public auction records are useful for locating comparable lots, but reported totals can vary by feed and fees may be handled differently. Private transactions and changing attributions are not fully visible, so an artist-wide median should not be treated as a prediction for an individual work.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with matched public auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Private sales, incomplete feeds, and attribution changes may not be represented.

## Sources

- Art UK: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/bonington-richard-parkes-18021828
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-parkes-bonington-41
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/028144503
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500024171
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q380395
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Parkes_Bonington
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/richard-parkes-bonington/