George Vincent was an English landscape painter. He is considered to be one of principal artists of the Norwich School of painters, with his work founded on the style of the Norwich artist John Crome and of Dutch landscape painting.
Vincent was the son of a Norwich weaver. He was educated at Norwich School and apprenticed to Crome. He exhibited at the Norwich Society of Artists each year from 1811 until 1831, showing a total of more than one hundred pictures, mostly of Norfolk landscapes, rural scenes and marine works. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and elsewhere. By 1818 he had relocated to London and was initially successful in obtaining the patronage of a number of wealthy clients, but he then began to struggle financially. In 1824, after a marriage which foolishly led to the purchase of an expensive house, he was incarcerated in the Fleet Prison for debt. Before being released from prison in 1827 he resumed his connection with the Norwich Society of Artists, all be it with a much declined output of work.
Little is known of the last few years of George Vincent's life. He is known to have contributed to an art exhibition in Norwich in 1831, but his whereabouts after this date remain unknown. There is evidence that he died before April 1832, probably in Bath.
Little is known of Vincent's early childhood. He was born in the Norwich parish of St John Timberhill on 27 June 1796, the son of James Vincent, a weaver who manufactured shawls, and his wife Mary (born Mary Freeman). In 1794 a son, also called George, had previously died in infancy. The family are known to have lived at one time in St. Clement's Church Alley, close to the River Wensum in the centre of the city.
George Vincent was the first cousin (on his mother's side) of Sir William Jackson Hooker, a renowned botanical illustrator who became the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1841.
Mary Vincent died in about 1800, when George was a small child. He was educated at Norwich School, where, according to the writer R. H. Mottram, he became good friends with Frederick and John Berney Crome, the young sons of the artist John Crome.
On leaving school he was apprenticed to Crome, his fellow pupils including John Berney Crome and James Stark. The three friends travelled together on sketching and painting trips, influencing each other's artistic styles in the process. In 1816 Vincent travelled to Paris with John Berney Crome and a surgeon named Benjamin Steel, who was to marry John Berney's sister Hannah six years later. In a letter by Crome, Vincent was reported to be seasick during the crossing from England to France. The following year he moved to London, living in Newman Street, next door to his close friend James Stark.
Vincent came from London to be present at John Crome's funeral in 1821, although by April 1821 he was in "very indifferent health".
On 3 November 1821 he married Mary Elizabeth Cugnoni, the nineteen-year-old and reputedly wealthy daughter of a surgeon, James Cugnoni. He bought a house in Camden Town, which was subsequently sold when his new wife's money failed to materialise. No children are known to have been produced from the marriage. In 1822 the Vincents were living at Kentish Town. After that year Vincent's name appears in exhibition catalogues, but with no address. During this period his health seems to have suffered, due in part because of his intemperate habits, and he was generally in severe financial difficulties.
A letter from George Vincent refers briefly to a 'past folly' which seems to have been the cause of a permanent rift with his parents, as well as with his friend and fellow artist James Stark. Both Vincent's alcoholism and the rumours about the 'folly' exasperated his debt problems. He was committed to London's Fleet Prison in 1824, where he was forced to remain for three years. During this time he was permitted to travel back to Norwich accompanied by a keeper, to raise funds through the sale of his paintings.
After 1831, Vincent disappeared from public view. The Society of British Artists in the following year listed him as "deceased". The circumstances of his death are unknown. He may have died at some time before 14 April 1832, when a notice appeared in the Norwich Mercury: "Died lately at Bath, in his 36th year, Mr George Vincent, artist, son of Mr. James Vincent, of this city". Mottram wrote that Vincent had the appearance of a boy who was too sensitive to withstand a life of travelling at sea and heaving drinking, and described Vincent's death as "completely mysterious", whilst also suggesting Vincent's inability to carry his drink, pay his creditors off, or maintain his sanity, as possible causes for his disappearance from public life. A few years after Vincent's death was announced, Mary Vincent married a journalist named Thomas Murphy.

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