James Britton, American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

(1878–1936), born in Hartford, Connecticut. Trained as a realist painter with noted Connecticut artist

Charles Noel Flagg Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

, he worked for a short period as staff artist for

The Hartford Times ''The Hartford Times'' was a daily afternoon newspaper serving the Hartford, Connecticut, community from 1817 to 1976. It was owned for decades by the Gannett Company which sold the financially struggling paper in 1973 to the owners of the '' New ...

, and then as an art critic for The Hartford Courant. Britton was a prolific painter, earning his living for the most part from painting portraits and for his pleasure landscapes, as well as woodblock prints and drawings. He was also often short of money, which meant that instead of being able to buy new canvases for his work he simply painted over what he happened to have at hand. Among his surviving works are several paintings on cereal boxes and in one case a small egg carton, as well as a large number of very small postcard-sized landscapes . He painted at various times in his native Connecticut, New York City, and Sag Harbor. As well as being a painter in his own right, he was also an organizer of artists and art students, in Connecticut being one of the founders of the Connecticut Art Students League. In New York he was one of the founders of a group called The Eclectics, with whom he exhibited regularly. In his years in New York he occasionally worked as art critic for the weekly American Art News. And to reflect his interest in getting out the news on American painters, whom he believed to be substantially unknown and under-appreciated by the art world and public alike, in 1919 he created, edited and published an art periodical, Art Review International, which lasted until 1925. As a critic for American Art News, he reviewed contemporary events such as the rmory Showof 1913. Britton had three children: James Jerome, born 1915; Teresa, born 1916; and Ruth born in 1919. In 1928 he was involved in a traffic accident, seriously injuring his hip and leaving his mobility compromised. He died on April 16, 1936, at the age of fifty-eight. His work has been the object of some revival in recent years. Sag Harbor Studio, oil on canvas, 24x36, 1925 (Including portraits of the artist and of his wife Caroline)

References

James Britton: Connecticut Artist, by Nancy Stula

External links

A finding aid to the James Britton papers, circa 1905-1984, bulk circa 1905-1935, in Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
American art critics Artists from Hartford, Connecticut 1878 births 1936 deaths Painters from Connecticut 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American male artists {{US-painter-1870s-stub