James Britton

Who was James Britton?

James Britton, American painter, born in Hartford, Connecticut. Trained as a realist painter with noted Connecticut artist Charles Noel Flagg, he worked for a short period as staff artist for The Hartford Times, and then as an art critic for The Hartford Courant.

Britton was a prolific painter, earning his living for the most part from painting portraits and for his pleasure landscapes, as well as woodblock prints and drawings. He was also often short of money, which meant that instead of being able to buy new canvases for his work he simply painted over what he happened to have at hand. Among his surviving works are several paintings on cereal boxes and in one case a small egg carton, as well as a large number of very small postcard-sized landscapes .

He painted at various times in his native Connecticut, New York City, and Sag Harbor. As well as being a painter in his own right, he was also an organizer of artists and art students, in Connecticut being one of the founders of the Connecticut Art Students League. In New York he was one of the founders of a group called The Eclectics, with whom he exhibited regularly.