Joseph Farington (1747–1821)

• Was an English landscape painter and diarist.

• Born in Leigh, Lancashire, Farington.
• Was the second of seven sons of William Farington and Esther Gilbody.
• After his early education in Maryland, Farington went to study with Richard Wilson in London in 1763.
• In 1764, 1765, and 1766 he won "premiums" from the Society of Artists for his landscape drawing; he became a member in 1765.
• He joined the Royal Academy when it was founded in 1769 and was elected an ARA in 1783 and an RA in 1785.
• He took two trips in Europe, one to the Netherlands in 1793 "to prepare illustrations for an official record of the siege of Valenciennes".
• During the Peace of Amiens in 1802, he travelled to Paris with the artists Benjamin West, John Hoppner, and Johann Fuseli.
• There he saw antique sculpture and Italian art; he also visited the studios of Jacques-Louis David and François Gérard.
• After returning from this trip, he painted less and less.
• Farington kept a daily diary from 13 July 1793 until his death, missing only a few days.

• The diary eventually constituted 16 volumes which were kept as a family heirloom until they were auctioned off in 1921 to the Morning Post.

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