James Macdonald Barnsley (February20, 1861February25, 1929) was a Canadian painter of maritime art. His watercolours and some of his oils reflect the influence of the Hague School which, starting in the 1870s, created moody landscapes in almost monochromatic hues.

Biography

Barnsley was born in West Flamborough, Canada West, today known as

Dundas, Ontario : ''For the county in eastern Ontario see Dundas County, Ontario. For the upper tier county, see United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.'' Dundas is a community and town in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is nicknamed the ''Valley Town' ...

. His childhood was marked by several tragedies: the death of his father and sister, the death of his uncle (his mother's brother), and the burning of the family business. As a result, his mother, Christina Barnsley (1829–1923), moved with him to St. Louis, Missouri, where another brother lived. When he was 18, he began his formal art training at the

St. Louis School of Fine Arts The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-buil ...

. Upon graduated, he was awarded the gold medal. In 1883, he traveled to Paris, France, and studied with

Luigi Loir Luigi Loir (22 December 1845 – 9 February 1916) was a French painter, illustrator and lithographer. Biography Luigi Loir was born in Goritz, Austria. He was the son of Tancrède Loir François and Thérèse Leban, his wife, respectively va ...

, Otto de Thoren and Félix de Vuillefroy. He lived in Paris with a studio at Puteaux for five years, and during that time he made the primary subject of his paintings the sea and its ships. In 1883 a comprehensive exhibition of Eugene-Louis Boudin and his French Impressionism seems to have influenced him. Barnsley exhibited in five

Paris salons The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

, received favorable reviews, was elected a member of the Société des amis des arts de Seine-et-Oise at Versailles and won numerous Salon Awards for his maritime and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

paintings. In 1886, he began to show his work with the

Royal Canadian Academy The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

. In 1887, he began exhibiting with W. Scott and Sons Galleries, Montreal. In 1887, he returned to Canada and showed his work with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and began to show work with the Art Association of Montreal. He settled in Montreal and opened a studio in New York as well as travelling abroad. In 1890, he was elected to the New York Watercolour Club at its inaugural meeting. In 1892, he was diagnosed as mentally ill with schizophrenia and was admitted to the Protestant Hospital for the Insane in Verdun, Montreal where he remained the rest of his life. He never painted again, but his Montreal dealer, W. Scott and Sons Galleries along with his mother, promoted his work and placed it to advantage in exhibitions such as those of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and sold it to institutions such as the National Gallery of Canada and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where it remains today. In 1964, the Vancouver Art Gallery circulated a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

of 65 of his works to five galleries with a catalogue by J. Barry Lord which remains the best account of his life. Lord also wrote an article in the ''National Gallery of Canada Bulletin'' about his discovery of Barnsley sketches in the collection.

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* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnsley, James Macdonald Canadian male painters 19th-century Canadian painters 1861 births 1929 deaths Canadian marine artists Canadian Impressionist painters 19th-century Canadian male artists