View source for James Wilson Morrice

{{Short description|Canadian artist (1865–1924)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = James Wilson Morrice
| image         = James Wilson Morrice, R.C.A. (I0007822).jpg
| image_size    = 
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1865|08|10}} 
| birth_place   = [[Montreal]], [[Canada East]]
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1924|01|23|1865|08|10}}
| death_place   = [[Tunis]], [[Tunisia]]
| nationality   = 
| field         = [[Painter]]
| training      = [[Académie Julian]]
| movement      = [[Post-Impressionism]]
| works         = ''Prow of a Gondola, Venice''
| patrons       = 
| awards        = 
}}

'''James Wilson Morrice''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|RCA|size=100%}} (August 10, 1865 – January 23, 1924) is considered Canada's foremost modernist artist.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bouchard |first1=Anne-Marie |title="James Wilson Morrice and Fin-de-siècle France: A Flâneur's Aesthetic". Morrice : the A.K. Prakash Collection in Trust to the Nation |date=2017 |publisher=Figure 1 Publishing Inc and National Gallery of Canada |location=Vancouver and Ottawa, Ont. |isbn=9781773270180 |url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aatannasova%2C+k/aatannasova+k/-3%2C0%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=aatanassova+katerina&12%2C%2C24/indexsort=- |access-date=26 August 2025}}</ref> He was the first Canadian painter to be known internationally. In 1891, he moved to [[Paris]], [[France]], where he lived for most of his career with journeys to many different places such as, in France, Brittany, and Normandy, and elsewhere, Venice,{{sfn|Paikowsky|2023}} North Africa,{{sfn|Atanassova|2017|p=160}} and the Caribbean,{{sfn|Atanassova|2017|p=188}} besides Quebec on his trips home. [[W. Somerset Maugham]] knew him and had one of his characters say, <blockquote>...when you've seen his sketches...you can never see Paris in the same way again.<ref>W. Somerset Maugham, ''The Magician'' (orig. pub. 1908) (Penguin Books, 1967, p. 27).</ref></blockquote>

[[Clarence Gagnon]], another admirer, said that the "suddenness of vision" in his paintings made them look as if "they flew out of a box of butterflies".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Paikowsky |first1=Sandra |title="At the Water's Edge". Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons |date=2019 |publisher=National Gallery of Canada and Arnoldsche Art Publishers|location=Ottawa and Stuttgart|isbn=978-3-89790-547-4 |page=77 |url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aatannasova%2C+k/aatannasova+k/-3%2C0%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=aatanassova+katerina&2%2C%2C24/indexsort=-|access-date=25 October 2025}}</ref>

In Canada, James Morrice Street in New Bordeaux, [[Ahuntsic-Cartierville]], [[Montreal]] is named in his memory. 

==Biography==
Morrice was born in [[Montreal]], [[Canada East]], the son of a merchant, and studied law in [[Toronto]] from 1882 to 1889. In 1890 he left to study painting in England. The next year he arrived in Paris, where he studied at the [[Académie Julian]] from 1892 to 1897.<ref>{{cite DCB |first=Nicole |last=Cloutier |title=Morrice, James Wilson |volume=15 |url=https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/morrice_james_wilson_15E.html}}</ref> At the Académie Julian, he befriended [[Charles Conder]] and [[Maurice Prendergast]], and also met [[Robert Henri]]. Also in 1896, he began to paint his small sketches on wooden panels, called "pochades".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dorais |first1=Lucie |title=Works |url=https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW44839 |website=cowleyabbott.ca |publisher=Cowley Abbott Auction, Session 1 Important Canadian & International Art December 6th, 2023 |access-date=27 October 2023}}</ref> He then took lessons at the atelier of [[Henri Harpignies]], who encouraged his students to paint [[en plein air]].

Morrice continued to live in Paris until the [[First World War]], although he spent most of his winters in Canada and travelled widely abroad. He was influenced by the art work he saw in Paris such as the [[Fauvism|Fauves]] at the 1905 [[Salon d'Automne]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dorais |first1=Lucie |title=Article |url=https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW42526 |website=cowleyabbott.ca |publisher=Cowley Abbott Auction, Session 1 Important Canadian & International Art December 6th, 2023  |access-date=3 July 2023}}</ref> (which he participated in)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dorais |first1=Lucie |title=Works |url=https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW44839 |website=cowleyabbott.ca |publisher=Cowley Abbott Auction, Session 1 Important Canadian & International Art December 6th, 2023 |access-date=27 October 2023}}</ref> along with the several other Parisian art societies with which he exhibited regularly,{{sfn|Atanassova|2017|p=17}} while also remaining in touch with the Canadian art world. He joined the [[Canadian Art Club]] in Toronto (1907).

During this period he was also in contact with the literary milieu, with English expatriate intellectuals living in Paris, such as [[W. Somerset Maugham]], [[Arnold Bennett]], and [[Clive Bell]]. In 1911, he wrote [[Edmund Montague Morris|Edmund Morris]] that there was excitement in London over the ''Post-Impressionism'' exhibition. As he wrote,<blockquote>Everybody laughed and jeered but with a few exceptions it consisted of good things - art that will last.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Joan |title=The Birth of the Modern: Post-Impressionism in Canadian Art, 1900-1920 |date=2002 |publisher=Robert McLaughlin Gallery |location=Oshawa |page=n.p|url=http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/amurray%2C+joan/amurray+joan/1%2C1%2C152%2CB/frameset&FF=amurray+joan+1943&24%2C%2C152 |access-date=22 February 2022}}</ref></blockquote> In the winters of 1912 and 1912-1913, he stayed in [[Tangiers]]. His second trip coincided with a trip by [[Matisse]] whom he met and with whom he exchanged ideas about art. He was elected an honorary non-resident member of the [[Royal Canadian Academy]] in 1913.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McMann |first1=Evelyn |title=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |date=1981 |publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|url= http://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aMcMann/amcmann/1%2C2%2C11%2CB/frameset&FF=amcmann+evelyn+de+r+evelyn+de+rostaing+1913+1999&8%2C%2C10|access-date=2022-06-03}}</ref>

With the advent of World War I, Morrice went to Montreal, and then to [[Cuba]]. There he began to succumb to [[alcoholism]]. The output of his last period is uneven and infrequent. In the summer of 1922 he travelled to [[Algiers]], where he painted with [[Albert Marquet]]. This would be the last time that he painted, as his health began to rapidly deteriorate. He died, aged 58, in [[Tunis]].

==Gallery==
Morrice's paintings before the turn of the century are thinly painted and inspired by [[James McNeill Whistler|Whistler]], both in sentiment and in treatment of colour. Just prior to World War I he began to paint, in a thicker style, winter Canadian scenes influenced by the [[Impressionists]] and particularly by [[Maurice Cullen (artist)|Maurice Cullen]], whom he met in 1897.{{sfn|Murray |2002|p=117}} In 1905, he would have seen Fauvist paintings in the [[Salon d'Automne]] and been influenced by their pure, bright hues.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dorais |first1=Lucie |title=Works |url=https://cowleyabbott.ca/artwork/AW44002 |website=cowleyabbott.ca |publisher=Cowley Abbott Auction, Important Canadian & International Art, December 6th, 2023 |access-date=27 October 2023}}</ref> Some of his works during his Caribbean period are considered his best and are painted in a loose style influenced by [[Post-Impressionism]] and suggest artists such as [[Matisse]]. 

He is noted for his sense of observation and ability to distill the essence of what he saw in his work, often in "pochades", little sketches. Morrice's images of café culture, or other public gatherings, including seasonal "fêtes," regatta or circus scenes, remain unique in Canadian art", as one curator writes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Atanassova |first1=Katerina |title=Article |url=https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/exhibitions/canadian-artists-in-dialogue-with-impressionism |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada Magazine March 1, 2022 |access-date=1 April 2024}}</ref> "The artist with the delicate eye", Matisse called him in 1925.{{sfn|Murray |2002|p=118}}

* ''Prow of a Gondola, Venice'', 1897 [[National Gallery of Canada]]
* ''Return from School'', 1901
* ''Quai des Grands-Augustins'', 1903. The [[National Gallery of Canada]]
* ''The Ferry, Quebec'', 1906. NGC
* ''Blanche Baume'', 1912. NGC
* ''House in Santiago'', 1915 [[Tate Gallery]]
* ''Village Street, West Indies'', 1919. [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]]

<gallery>
File:James-Wilson-Morrice-Paris-Canal-Vers-1900.jpg|''Paris Canal 1900'' [[Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal]]
File:JAMES-WILSON-MORRICE-33.jpg|''Venice c. 1900''
File:James-Wilson-Morrice-Dieppe-1906.jpg|''Dieppe, 1906''
File:Morris Street Scene Pink Sky Paris 1908.jpg|''Street Scene Pink Sky Paris'' c. 1908 [[Art Gallery of Ontario]]
File:Morrice-La veille maison Holton a Montreal.jpg|''Old Holton House, Montreal'', 1908-09 [[Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal]]
File:Morris23.jpg|''Venice, c. 1910''
File:James wilson morrice 22.jpg|''The Ferry, Quebec'' c. 1910
Image:Blanche Baume by James Wilson Morrice.jpg|''Blanche Baume'', Oil on canvas, 1911–12, National Gallery of Canada
</gallery>

==Recognition and legacy==
In 1958, works by Morrice along with those of [[Jacques de Tonnancour]], [[Anne Kahane]] and [[Jack Nichols (painter)|Jack Nichols]] represented Canada at the [[Venice Biennale]].<ref name=NGC_Venice >{{cite web|title=Past Canadian Exhibitions |work=National Gallery of Canada at the Venice Biennale |url=http://www.gallery.ca/venice/80.htm |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=12 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013125245/http://www.gallery.ca/venice/80.htm |archive-date=13 October 2013 }}</ref>

The [[Montreal Museum of Fine Arts]] is one of the two main repositories of his work along with the [[National Gallery of Canada]]. Montrealers David Rousseau Morrice (1903-1978) and F. Eleanore Morrice (1901-1981) willed to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts many works of art they had collected during their lives, published as ''A Montreal Collection: Gift From Eleanore and David Morrice'' and exhibited at the Museum in 1983.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Montreal Collection: Gift From Eleanore and David Morrice |url=https://quescren.concordia.ca/en/resource/HJXR2U8A |year=1983 |publisher=Concordia University, Montreal |access-date=23 February 2022}}</ref> Several significant gifts have enhanced the National Gallery's collection, enhanced by major publications such as [[Charles C. Hill]]'s ''Morrice A Gift to the Nation The [[G. Blair Laing]] Collection'' (1992). In 2016, [[Ash K. Prakash]] gave the National Gallery a major collection of Morrice, which the National Gallery exhibited as ''James Wilson Morrice: The A.K. Prakash Collection in Trust to the Nation'' (2017) and travelled nationally (2018-2019).<ref>{{cite web |title=James W Morrice: the A. K. Prakash Collection in trust to the nation |url=https://www.gallery.ca/whats-on/exhibitions-and-galleries/james-w-morrice-the-ak-prakash-collection-in-trust-to-the-nation |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=23 February 2022}}</ref> It was accompanied by a major and in-depth book on Morrice by [[Katerina Atanassova]] bearing the same title.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Atanassova |first1=Katerina |title=Morrice : the A.K. Prakash Collection in trust to the nation |date=2017 |publisher=Figure 1 Publishing Inc and National Gallery of Canada |location=Vancouver and Ottawa, Ont. |isbn=9781773270180 |url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aatannasova%2C+k/aatannasova+k/-3%2C0%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=aatanassova+katerina&12%2C%2C24/indexsort=- |access-date=25 August 2025}}</ref> 

In 2023, the major book ''James Wilson Morrice: paintings and drawings of Venice'' by [[Sandra Paikowsky]] was published.{{sfn|Paikowsky|2023}} In recognition of the artist's work in Venice as well as the book, the [[McMichael Canadian Art Collection]] organized a show in 2025 titled ''Morrice in Venice'', advised by Paikowsky.<ref>{{cite web |title=Article |url=https://mcmichael.com/event/morrice-in-venice |website=mcmichael.com |publisher=McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg |access-date=11 July 2025}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book
  | last = Reid
  | first = Dennis
  | title = A Concise History of Canadian Painting, Second Edition
  | publisher = Oxford University Press Canada
  | year = 1988
  | location = Don Mills
  | url = https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00reid_0
  | isbn = 0-19-540663-X
  | url-access = registration
  }}
* [[Ash K. Prakash]]: ''Impressionism in Canada. A Journey of Rediscovery.'' Pref. Guy Wildenstein, introd. William H Gerdts. Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 2014, 2. Aufl. 2015 (illustr. book, with expl. One chapter on James Wilson Morrice. [https://www.arnoldsche.com/Bildende-Kunst/IMPRESSIONISM-IN-CANADA-artikel.html?listtype=search&searchparam=kanada Figure ''Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré'' from 1897] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818214706/https://www.arnoldsche.com/Bildende-Kunst/IMPRESSIONISM-IN-CANADA-artikel.html?listtype=search&searchparam=kanada |date=August 18, 2018 }} on the publishers page)'
* {{cite book |last1=Atanassova |first1=Katerina |title=Morrice : the A.K. Prakash Collection in trust to the nation |date=2017 |publisher=Figure 1 Publishing Inc and National Gallery of Canada |location=Vancouver and Ottawa, Ont. |isbn=9781773270180 |url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aatannasova%2C+k/aatannasova+k/-3%2C0%2C0%2CB/frameset&FF=aatanassova+katerina&12%2C%2C24/indexsort=- |access-date=23 August 2025 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last1=Paikowsky |first1=Sandra |title=James Wilson Morrice: Paintings and Drawings of Venice |date=2023 |publisher=Arnoldsche |location=Stuttgart|isbn=9783897906914|url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/aPaikowsky%2C+Sandra+/apaikowsky+sandra/1%2C1%2C35%2CB/frameset&FF=apaikowsky+sandra&17%2C%2C35 |access-date=15 May 2024}}

==External links==
*[http://www.magma.ca/~ldorais/morricee.htm Web site by Morrice specialist Lucie Dorais]
*[https://www.gallery.ca/collection/search-the-collection?search_api_views_fulltext=morrice&sort_by=search_api_relevance&f%5B0%5D=field_reference_artist%253Atitle%3AJames%20Wilson%20Morrice A large gallery of paintings by Morrice on the National Gallery of Canada's website.]

{{Canadian Impressionism|state=expanded}}
{{Impressionism}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrice, James Wilson}}
[[Category:1865 births]]
[[Category:1924 deaths]]
[[Category:Académie Julian alumni]]
[[Category:Artists from Montreal]]
[[Category:Canadian male painters]]
[[Category:Canadian landscape painters]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:19th-century Canadian painters]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian painters]]
[[Category:Canadian Impressionist painters]]
[[Category:19th-century Canadian male artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male artists]]
[[Category:Canadian expatriates in France]]
[[Category:Canadian Post-impressionist painters]]
[[Category:Canadian genre painters]]