The image size of this print is 20 X 32.

THE POPPY GARDEN by James Wells Champney (American 1843-1903) Collection of Edward and Deborah Pollack.

James Wells "Champ" Champney was a prolific artist whose work was of high quality and broad scope. He was very successful as an oil painter of genre scenes, and later was perhaps the foremost pastelist of his day. A lecturer, illustrator, watercolorist and photographer, he was also one of the first Americans to grasp and utilize the spirit of impressionism.

Champney was born in Boston in 1843. At Lowell Institute he studied drawing and took courses in anatomy under Oliver Wendell Holmes. He was apprenticed to a Boston wood-engraver at 16, but left in 1862 to serve in the Civil War. Discharged because of malaria, he taught drawing from 1864 to 1866 at Dr. Dio Lewis's Young Ladies' Seminary.

In 1866, Champney decided to become a professional artist and went to Europe to study. He left for London in October, then journeyed on to Ecouen, France a month later to be tutored by Edouard Frere. Champney spent 1868 in Antwerp studying under Van Lerius, and 1869 in Italy. That year he exhibited his first genre painting at the Paris Salon.

In 1870 he returned to Boston, where he opened a studio and continued to produce genre paintings, popular with the American public. These paintings quaintly depicted the young, as in "Teetering at the SawMill" (date and location unknown); the old, as in "Second Childhood" (date and location unknown) or the two together, as in "Helping Grandma" (date and location unknown).

In 1873, Champney was commissioned by Scribner's to illustrate "The Great South," a series of articles by Edward King. The two traveled more than 25,000 miles and Champney contributed at least 500 illustrations. Afterwards, Champney visited Europe, where he again exhibited at the Salon, and was commissioned by L'Illustration, the French magazine, to do figure drawings of American life. In 1876, Champney settled in Deerfield, Massachusetts and showed his paintings at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

While teaching art at Smith College between 1877 and 1884, Champney began experimenting with pastels. His pastel "translations," or copies, of European masterpieces, as well as portraits of New York Society and theater personalities, boosted his artistic growth and popularity. In fact, to have one's portrait rendered in Champney's pastels was an affirmation of status.

The high point of his career, however, was his exhibition at Knoedler's Gallery in 1897. He displayed 40 pastels, 12 comprising a series called "Types of American Girlhood." These large paintings bore such titles as "The Bicyclist", "The College Graduate" and "At the Golf Links".

Champney died in an elevator mishap while leaving the Camera Club in New York City in 1903.