James Wadmore

Who was James Wadmore?

James Wadmore, was an English connoisseur.

Wadmore was born on 4 October 1782 in the Hampstead Road, London. His father, James Wadmore, worked in the Stamp Office. The son, on leaving a school near Greta Bridge, Yorkshire, obtained a place in the same office, which he resigned to become a land-surveyor. On finishing his apprenticeship, he set up on his own account at Lisson Grove. He began early in life to collect pictures, and his first purchase of importance was Richard Westall's "Hagar and Ishmael". In 1815 he inherited a fortune from an uncle, and moved to 40 Chapel Street, Marylebone, where he collected pictures by modern English artists, Turner, Wilkie, Webster, and others, and also by old masters. He formed a good collection of English watercolours, as well as prints, books, and manuscripts.

Wadmore passed the later years of his life at Upper Clapton, where he died on 24 December 1853. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery. His pictures, 186 in number, of which seventy-five were by old masters, the remainder by modern English painters, were sold at Christie's on 5 and 6 May 1854.