Oil painting entitled 'Meadow Scene with Cattle and Trees' by James Charles. Great Britain, ca. 1870-1906.

Oil painting of a meadow scene with cattle grazing among trees.

Bequeathed by Henry Louis Florence

Bequeathed by Henry L. Florence, 1916

Historical significance: James Henry Charles (1851-1906), portrait and landscape painter, was born at Warrington in Lancashire. His father, Richard Charles, was a designer. At the age of fourteen James Charles accompanied his father to London, where he worked in his father's office and was employed for some time by a lithographer. He then studied at Heatherley's School of Art in Chelsea, and in 1872 entered the Royal Academy Schools.

Charles began his career as a portrait painter. In 1879 he met the Bradford Mill owner John Maddocks, who became an important patron, and encouraged him to paint rural genre subjects. During the 1880s Charles formed important friendships with members of the New English Art Club, in particular George Clausen and Henry Herbert La Thangue. The influence of this group of painters, who looked to the French impressionist painters for inspiration, is evident in this naturalistic rural scene.

This painting was bequeathed to the V&A in 1916 by Henry L. Florence of Prince's Gate, South Kensington, London. The bequest also included paintings by Brangwyn, Clausen, Corot, Leighton and Fantin-Latour.

P.46-1917