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James Wells Champney (American, 1843-1903)
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James Wells Champney
Children with Birds
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Biography |
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Painter, illustrator, sketch artist engraver, teacher |
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Born in Boston, lived in NYC, MA, New Orleans, LA active 1873-74 |
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Studied: Lowell Inst,. MA, Edouard Frere’, 1866, Academie d’ Anvers, France, Antwerp Academy, 1868, with Van Lerius |
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Member: Assoc. National Academy, Am. Watercolor Soc., Boston Art Club, SC, Boston Watercolor Club, NAC, Century Assn., Players, AFAS, MMA |
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Positions: Instructor, Smith College, Hartford Soc. Des. Art |
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Established a reputation as a genre painter of rural scenes and country home life |
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Among the first American artists to adopt Impressionism |
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1859 He was apprenticed to a Boston wood engraver (at age 16), then fought in the Civil War, discharged because of malaria |
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1864-66 Taught at a ladies school |
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Studied in France until 1870 |
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1873-74 Went to New Orleans for Scribner’s Monthly with journalist Edward King to portray the South in a series of illustrated articles |
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1880 He practically abandoned oils and watercolor to devote his entire energies to pastels |
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Son of Benjamin Champney |
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Exhibitions |
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1868 (first prize in drawing) Royal Academy Antwerp |
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1873-74, 1876-78, 1883-1902 Boston Art Club |
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1874-1903 National Academy of Design |
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1875, 1894 Paris Salon |
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1876 Cent. Expo., Phila. |
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1877-85, 1912 Brooklyn AA |
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1881-83, 1890-91 PAFA |
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1882 Southern Art Union |
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1893 AIC, Columbian Expo., Chicago |
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1897 Tennessee Cent. Expo., Nashville |
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1897 (solo of 40 pastels) Knoedler Gal., NYC |
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Literature |
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Encyclopedia of New Orleans Artists, P & H Samuels, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 300 Years of American Art |
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