Explore: Julius Caesar Ibbetson

(1759 - 1817)

Julius Caesar Ibbetson was a landscape painter in oil and watercolour, and also an illustrator and etcher. He was born in Leeds and was mostly self-trained by copying Old Masters for dealers and painting pastiches of Dutch landscapes. He also worked as a scene painter. Usually on a small scale, some of his landscapes have been compared to early Gainsborough works. While based in London from about 1784 to 1798, he accompanied distinguished patrons on UK visits and tours, including trips to Wales and the Isle of Wight. From 1799 he worked chiefly in the Lake District, before moving to Masham, North Yorkshire, in 1805, where he became the protégé of local landowner William Danby. Ibbetson published ‘Painting in Oil’ in 1803. He died aged 57.