James Wilson Morrice

James Wilson Morrice is arguably the finest artist Canada spawned. Perhaps the first to achieve success on the world stage, no other artist from Canada has resonated as widely and for as long.  Beginning  more than a century ago, Morrice’s paintings were acquired by among the foremost private collectors in Europe, the USA and Canada. Today his work can be found in the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de Picardie, the Hermitage, The Barnes Collection, and museums across Canada.

Morrice was born in Montreal, Quebec, on August 10, 1865, into a wealthy family of Scottish background. From an early age, he showed an interest in art. Morrice attended the University of Toronto, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886, and then studied law at Osgoode Hall. Although he was called to the Ontario bar in 1889, he never practised law, choosing instead to pursue his growing passion for art. Around 1890, Morrice left Canada for Europe, spending time in England before settling in Paris. There he briefly studied at the Académie Julian and later received guidance from French landscape painter Henri Harpignies. Paris became Morrice’s main home and artistic base, beginning a lifelong career of painting and travelling throughout Europe and beyond.

An acquaintance of Henri Matisse, Clive Bell, W. Somerset Maugham, and greatly admired by many other artists, the itinerant Morrice painted on three continents.  His contemporary buyers included Sir William Van Horne, A.C. Barnes, Ivan Morozov, Jacques Rouché, André Schoeller, the Carnegie Institute, the French Government, the Musée Jeu de Paume, the Musée des Beaux-Arts (Lyon),  and the Tate Gallery, to name only a selection. The American painters Robert Henri and William Merrit Chase owned works by Morrice.  John Sloan, one of the founders of the Ashcan School, described Morrice as, “one of the greatest landscape painters of the time.”  Writing in 1909, the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles famously declared that; “Since the death of James MacNeill Whistler, J.W. Morrice is unquestionably the North American painter who has achieved in France and Paris, the most enviable and well-merited place in the world of art.”

In Europe, Morrice painted in France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Spain, and other countries, while also returning regularly to Canada to visit his family and paint scenes in Quebec. North Africa was also important to his work. Morrice travelled to Tangier, Morocco, twice, in 1912 and 1912–1913, and on both visits he spent time with the great French artist, Henri Matisse. He later travelled to Algeria, where he painted with Albert Marquet, as well as Tunisia.  Morrice also visited the Caribbean: in 1915 he travelled to Cuba and Jamaica, and in 1921 he visited Trinidad. 

Morrice often worked directly from the world around him, carrying sketchbooks wherever he travelled and quickly recording streets, cafés, landscapes, buildings, and figures that caught his attention. He also painted small oil sketches, known as pochades, en plein air, outdoors and directly in front of the subject. These small portable panels allowed him to capture fleeting moments, effects of light, colour, as well as the feeling of a place.  There is a remarkable ease, sensitivity, and economy in these paintings: Rather than describing every detail, Morrice used simplified forms, composition, colour, and subtle harmonies.  From the pochades and drawings, Morrice would occasionally develop a larger canvas, reconsidering and refining his observations and ideas.  With his skillful combination of spontaneity and composition, and eye for beauty, Morrice transformed everyday moments into poetic and arresting images.

Morrice died in Tunis, Tunisia in January 1924.