Oils on canvas, 16"x11½", signed by James Watson and showing a girl sewing a bonnet from the required yard of cotton. This is painted in an unuaully academic style for Watson, skillfully potraying a domestic interior scene with a superb use of chiarascuro. SOLD
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Oils on canvas, 19"x25", signed and dated 1894 by James Watson.
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Oils on canvas laid on panel, 11"x15", signed by James Watson.
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Watercolours, A Studio at Runswick, watercoloiurs, 9¾"x11½", signed.
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JAMES WATSON 1851 – 1936

James Watson was born in Newcastle, the eldest son of a coach smith. He was educated at Old Heber Tower School, Newcastle and South Kensington School of Art.
From 1876 until 1919 he was Art Master at Newcastle Grammar School and also Art Inspector for Durham County Council. When he retired from the Grammar School he moved with his wife to Hinderwell, living in Brown’s Terrace until she died in1930. He then went to live with a member of his family in Cullercoats. His body was brought back to Hinderwell for burial.

Watson was a member of Newcastle’s Bewick Club, becoming its Vice President. He was elected a member of the Staithes Art Club in 1903.

His work is variable in quality, some of his watercolours tending to be insipid and verging on the primitive. His oil work, especially some of the larger examples painted in Runswick, give a particularly good indication of working life in the
village.

In the 1890s he produced some fine paintings in a more traditional style, but very much influenced by acute observation of light and shade.

He exhibited at the the Bewick Club, the Laing Gallery Newcastle, the Royal Academy and the Staithes Art Club.

Bibliography:
Staithes Group Centenary Exhibition, Rosamund Jordan 2003
The Artists of Northumbria, Marshall Hall, 2nd Edition, Titus Wilson & son Ltd., Kendal,
1982.
The Dictionary of British Artists 1880 – 1940, J. Johnson & A. Greutzner, Antique
Collectors’ Club, Woodbridge 1976

© Rosamund Jordan 2008