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20 January 2025
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Pierce Galleries, Inc.
Nantucket / Hingham
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James Wells Champney
(
American
, 1843–1903)
James Wells Champney
Frolicking in Hay,
1876
Price on Request
Biography
Timeline
Exhibitions
Literature
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
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Exhibitions
1868 (first prize in drawing) Royal Academy Antwerp
1873-74, 1876-78, 1883-1902 Boston Art Club
1874-1903 National Academy of Design
1875, 1894 Paris Salon
1876 Cent. Expo., Phila.
1877-85, 1912 Brooklyn AA
1881-83, 1890-91 PAFA
1882 Southern Art Union
1893 AIC, Columbian Expo., Chicago
1897 Tennessee Cent. Expo., Nashville
1897 (solo of 40 pastels) Knoedler Gal., NYC
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Literature
Encyclopedia of New Orleans Artists, P & H Samuels, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 300 Years of American Art