James Fahey (painter)
Encyclopedia
James Fahey was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 landscape painter.

Life and work

Fahey was born at Paddington
Paddington
Paddington is a district within the City of Westminster, in central London, England. Formerly a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965...

, then a village near London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and at first studied engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

 under his uncle, John Swaine
John Swaine
John Swaine was an English draughtsman and engraver.-Life and work:Swaine was born at Stanwell, Middlesex, on 26 June 1775, the son of John and Margaret Swaine, and became a pupil first of Jacob Schnebbelie and afterwards of Barak Longmate...

. Afterwards he became a pupil of George Scharf
George Scharf
Sir George Scharf KCB was an English art critic, illustrator, and director of the National Portrait Gallery.-Early years:...

, and then went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, where he studied from life, making full-size drawings of dissections, which he reproduced on stone for the use of anatomical students. His earliest exhibited work, a "Portrait of a young Gentleman", appeared at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 in 1825, and was followed in 1827 by drawings of the church of St. Jacques at Dieppe
Dieppe, Seine-Maritime
Dieppe is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in France. In 1999, the population of the whole Dieppe urban area was 81,419.A port on the English Channel, famous for its scallops, and with a regular ferry service from the Gare Maritime to Newhaven in England, Dieppe also has a popular pebbled...

 and the cathedral of Notre-Dame at Paris. Between this time and 1836 he contributed several portraits and landscapes in water-colours to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy, the British Institution
British Institution
The British Institution was a private 19th-century society in London formed to exhibit the works of living and dead artists; it was also known as the Pall Mall Picture Galleries or the British Gallery...

, and the Society of British Artists.

Meanwhile the beauties of English scenery led him by degrees to devote himself exclusively to landscape painting, and in 1834 he joined the Associated Painters in Water-Colours, out of which was formed in 1835 the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours (now the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours). Its first three exhibitions were held in Exeter Hall
Exeter Hall
Exeter Hall was a hall on the north side of The Strand, London, England. It was erected between 1829 and 1831 on the site of Exeter Exchange, to designs by John Peter Gandy, the brother of the visionary architect Joseph Michael Gandy...

, London, until in 1838 it moved to Pall Mall
Pall Mall
-Places:* Pall Mall, urban downtown ares of Bendigo, Australia* Pall Mall, London, a street in the City of Westminster, London* Pall Mall, Tennessee, a small unincorporated community in Fentress County, Tennessee...

, when Fahey became its secretary. This office he held until 1874, and discharged its duties with much tact and devotion. His works, mostly landscape compositions, in which he introduced figures and groups, were seldom absent from its exhibitions, and his official services were long given without any remuneration. In 1853, 1855, and 1857 he again sent landscape drawings to the Royal Academy, and in 1856 he was appointed drawing-master at the Merchant Taylors' School
Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
Merchant Taylors' School is a British independent day school for boys, originally located in the City of London. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....

, from which post he retired with a pension after twenty-seven years' service. He also painted occasionally in oil, and exhibited two pictures at the British Institution in 1861 and 1862.

Fahey died at The Grange, Shepherd's Bush Green, London. His son, Edward Henry Fahey (1844-1907), was well known as a painter in water-colours.

External links

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