Charles James Lewis (1830 – 28 January 1892) was an English painter in oils and watercolours.

Life

Lewis was born in 1830 in

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, London; his father, Charles Thomas Lewis, had Welsh ancestry. He first exhibited in 1853, when at the

Royal Academy of Art The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

he showed a portrait of "Miss Shelton". She was Mary Ann Matilda Hammond Shelton, whom he married in 1854. Charles-james-lewis-reading-by-the-window

He became a painter of rustic

genre scenes Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...

and of landscape, and his works were very popular. He was a prolific artist, and a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy (49 pictures shown up to 1890), at the

Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

(43 pictures up to 1884), and at the

British Institution The British Institution (in full, the British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom; founded 1805, disbanded 1867) was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it w ...

(49 pictures up to 1867); his works were also shown at other London exhibitions. His pictures were usually signed "C. J. Lewis". Lewis's more highly regarded work was done in watercolour; in 1882 he was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours. He also became a member of the

Institute of Painters in Oil Colours The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, also known as ROI, is an association of painters in London, England, and is the only major art society which features work done only in oil. It is a member society of the Federation of British Artists. Histor ...

. From 1884 he lived in

Cheyne Walk Cheyne Walk is an historic road in Chelsea, London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It runs parallel with the River Thames. Before the construction of Chelsea Embankment reduced the width of the Thames here, it fronted ...

, Chelsea, where he died on 28 January 1892 after a long illness, survived by his wife and family. He was buried at

Brookwood Cemetery Brookwood Cemetery, also known as the London Necropolis, is a burial ground in Brookwood, Surrey, England. It is the largest cemetery in the United Kingdom and one of the largest in Europe. The cemetery is listed a Grade I site in the Regist ...

, Woking.

References

External links

Charles James Lewis
at

Art UK Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 220,000 paintings by more than 40,000 artists and is now expanding the digital collection t ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Charles James 1830 births 1892 deaths Artists from Chelsea, London 19th-century British painters British watercolourists Burials at Brookwood Cemetery