Timeline

William James was a painter of topographical views and a picture dealer, who worked between 1754 and 1771. He closely imitated the Venetian views of Canaletto and the London paintings of Samuel Scott. According to Edward Edwards’s Anecdotes of Painter (1808), James was a pupil or assistant of Canaletto when he was in England (1746-56). James lived for some years in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden and later at the Golden Head in May’s Buildings, St Martin’s Lane, an area of London popular with artists and craftsmen

James exhibited at the Society of Artists of Great Britain from 1761 to 1768 and at the Royal Academy from 1769 to 1771. Most of his exhibited pictures were views of London, apart from a series of Egyptian temples which he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1768 and 1770.

The work of William James is represented in the Royal Collection at Hampton Court and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.