Timeline

Painter, illustrator, sketch artist engraver, teacher

Born in Boston, lived in NYC, MA, New Orleans, LA active 1873-74

Studied: Lowell Inst,. MA, Edouard Frere’, 1866, Academie d’ Anvers, France, Antwerp Academy, 1868, with Van Lerius

Member: Assoc. National Academy, Am. Watercolor Soc., Boston Art Club, SC, Boston Watercolor Club, NAC, Century Assn., Players, AFAS, MMA

Positions: Instructor, Smith College, Hartford Soc. Des. Art

Established a reputation as a genre painter of rural scenes and country home life

Among the first American artists to adopt Impressionism

1859 He was apprenticed to a Boston wood engraver (at age 16), then fought in the Civil War, discharged because of malaria

1864-66 Taught at a ladies school

Studied in France until 1870

1873-74 Went to New Orleans for Scribner’s Monthly with journalist Edward King to portray the South in a series of illustrated articles

1880 He practically abandoned oils and watercolor to devote his entire energies to pastels

Son of Benjamin Champney

Exhibitions

Literature

Encyclopedia of New Orleans Artists, P & H Samuels, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 300 Years of American Art