Description:
Watercolor of a farmyard with a thatched-roof stable, chickens, ladder, tub, bench, and water pump, which is signed in black in lower left corner, "J. Wells Champney." Born in Boston, James Wells Champney (1843-1903) served in the 45th Massachusetts Volunteers from 1862-1863 before being invalided out of the army; he then taught drawing at Dr. Dio Lewis's "Young Ladies Seminary" from 1864-1866. After deciding to become a professional artist, Champney moved to Europe where he studied in France with Pierre Edouard Frere (1819-1886), a well-known French realist genre painter; in Antwerp with Joseph Francois Henri Van Lerius (1823-1876); and in Italy. In 1870, Champney returned to Boston where he opened a studio; in 1873, he was commissioned by "Scribner's Monthly Magazine" to illustrate "The Great South; A Record of Journeys in Louisiana, Texas, the Indian Territory, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland," a series of articles on the Reconstruction South by Edward King (1848-1896) where the two travelled more than 25,000 miles and Champney contributed at least 500 illustrations. In 1873, Champney married Elizabeth Johnson Williams (1850-1922), whom he had met at the "Young Ladies Seminary;" she was a graduate of the Vassar class of 1869 who became a popular children's author of her period and many of whose whose works Champney illustrated. Born in Springfield, Ohio, Elizabeth Williams was the half-sister of Orson Bennet Williams (1834-1912) and daughter of Samuel Barnard Williams (1803-1884), originally of Deerfield, whose second wife was Caroline Johnson (d.1885) whom he married in 1844; the granddaughter of Elijah Williams (1767-1832) who married Hannah Barnard (1772-1853), daughter of Samuel Barnard (1721-1788) of Deerfield, in 1803; and great-granddaugher of Dr. Thomas Williams (1718-1775) of Deerfield. In 1876 the Champneys moved into Samuel Barnard Williams' house in Deerfield where Champney built a studio; they lived in Deerfield for several years while he was professor of art at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and one of the founders of the Smith Art Gallery. In 1879, Champney opened a studio in New York City, and from that time on the Deerfield became their summer home. James and Elizabeth had two children: Edward Frere Champney (1874-1929) who studied art and became an architect, and Maria Mitchell Champney (1876-1906) who was born in Deerfield, married John Sanford Humphreys in 1899, and was a miniature painter. The donor, listed as H.C. Robbins Landon, is probably descended from Howard Chandler Robbins (1876-1952) who was related to Edward Frere Champney by marriage. Howard Chandler Robbins' parents were the Rev. Francis Lebaron Robbins, Sr. (1830-1920) and Lucy Morton Hartpence Robbins (1856-1935), whose daughter and the Howard Chandler's sister, Mary Alice Robbins (1882-1950), married Edward Frere Champney in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1923. This scene is similar to another James Wells Champney watercolor, "A Surrey Stable" (HD 63.356); Champney painted on site, and from memory and photographs. "A Surrey Stable" was used as an illustration in Elizabeth Williams Champney's, "Three Vassar Girls in England. A Holiday Excursion of Three College Girls Through the Mother Country" with illustrations by "Champ" and published in Boston (Dana Estes and Company, 1884).
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