Charles Calvert (painter)
[3][4][5] The elder Calvert was a man of means, able to purchase a large plot of land at 82 Oldham Street in Manchester and build a house there for his family; they lived in the city during the winter and Derbyshire during the summer.
[6][1][7] Half of his eight children were born during stays in Glossop (including Charles Calvert the younger), but all of them were baptised at a Catholic chapel on Rook Street in Manchester.
[9] Similarly, many sources claim that Charles Calvert the elder's brother was Raisley Calvert, a sculptor from Cumberland who was a benefactor of the poet William Wordsworth (and whose father was also a steward for the Duke of Norfolk, at Greystoke Castle), and but this appears to be another family claim taken at face value—in reality, Charles the elder was born nearly two decades before his alleged "brother", their parents have different names on their birth certificates, and other than the Duke of Norfolk there is no documentary or geographical connection between the two men.
[10][11][12][3] Letherbrow is clear that the family did sincerely believe both their father's claims of noble descent and of having a brother who was "a bosom friend of Wordsworth"—however, they thought his name was "Randolph" rather than Raisley.
[2][3][15][2] Calvert originally apprenticed in the cotton trade, and he worked as a merchant for a short time "in accordance with the wishes of his friends" before deciding to pursue landscape painting as a career.
[16][17] Notices announcing the dissolution of Calvert's cotton merchant partnership with Michael Gibson appeared in newspapers in December 1810; the earliest works attributed to him today date from the early 1810s.
[21] One of Calvert's most notable works is View of the Manchester & Liverpool Railway Taken at Newton (1825), a drawing of two trains passing each other by the Old Legh Arms hotel on the world's first intercity passenger rail line, which was reproduced widely as an aquatint print.
[27][28][29] After raising £21,100 (roughly £1.6m in 2023 adjusted for inflation) a plot of land was purchased on Mosley Street in 1825, and construction started on a building designed by Charles Barry which would be completed by 1834.
[1][35][36] As one of the older members of the group of artists that helped found the Royal Manchester Institution, he was also often singled out by critics as an example that his younger peers in the city should follow.
[44][45] This fear proved real in 1837 when Calvert was declared bankrupt, and his personal collection of books, paintings, drawings, engravings, and other artworks was seized by his creditors and auctioned off to settle his debts.
