to those of his contemporaries Crome and John Ninham. Released from his apprenticeship, he moved to London. He was employed as a copyist by the Polygraphic Society, which had been established in 1784 by Joseph Booth and which held annual exhibitions of the paintings it reproduced. Sillett was forced to find employment elsewhere after a fire at the premises in 1793. Sillett claimed in the Norwich Mercury to have studied in the schools of the Royal Academy from 1787 to 1790, but there is no evidence this is true, as his name was not included in any of the Academy's published lists of entrants. Artistic career From the start of his artistic career, James Sillett showed himself to be one of the most versatile artists of the Norwich School of painters. He depicted landscapes, but tended towards a more academic style of landscape painting, which set him apart from his contemporaries. He became a good miniaturist, although G. C. Williamson in The History of Portrait Miniatures (1904) barely mentioned him, but noted that "his really notable work (was) scene painting, which he did for both Drury Lane and Covent Garden theatres". He painted game, fruit and flowers with considerable skill, often illustrating plants with a suggestion of the existence of a shadow, to give them a more three-dimensional appearance. Of the 342 works he exhibited in total during his career, only sixteen were not still lifes of plants or animals. He venerated the traditions of 18th century painters and paintings, which influenced his own works: the paintings he showed at Somerset House show clearly that at one time he studied the Dutch still life painter Jan van Os. His landscape paintings were produced on wood panel or canvas, and were sometimes engraved. Sillett exhibited at the Royal Academy for over forty years, between 1796 and 1837. Whilst in London it is thought that he was involved in painting scenery at Drury Lane and Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden, along with the Norwich artist William Capon. In 1796 his address was given as 12, Mansfield Place, St. Georges Fields, London: by 1798 he had moved to 16, Charles Street, Covent Garden. After 1798 his address is given as Norwich or King's Lynn, sometimes with alternative London addresses provided. For most of his working life Sillett taught drawing, advertising in the local press as an artist and drawing master. In 1804