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James Wells Champney 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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| Selected 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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1877-85, 1912 Brooklyn AA
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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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| Links to further information |
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