James Moore Preston

James Moore Preston (1873-1962) was an American painter and illustrator, married to fellow artist May Wilson Preston. He was one of the Ashcan School, along with his friend, William Glackens.

Early life

James Moore Preston was born in Roxborough, Pennsylvania in 1873.[1]

Education

During the 1890s, Preston studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he met Robert Henri and George Luks. Fellow students were William Glackens and Everett Shinn. After working for a Philadelphia newspaper, Preston studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris in 1898. American artist May Wilson was also studying in Paris at that time.[1]

Marriage

In 1903 Preston married May Wilson,[2] whose roommate Edith Dimock married one of Preston's friend, William J. Glackens.[2] The two couples spent summers together from 1911 to 1917 in Bellport on Long Island and took trips together to Europe. May and James traveled to France often. In New York, they frequented Cafe Francis and Mouquin's with a group of fellow artists.[1] In 1935, the Prestons moved to East Hampton, New York.[3]

Career

Preston worked for the Philadelphia newspaper as an artist-reporter in 1895. He shared a studio at that time with John Sloan. After Paris, Preston moved to New York by 1900 and joined Luks, Glackens, and Wilson. He was a landscape painter and a member of the group called The Eight that included friends from New York and Philadelphia.[1] He was one of the artists in the urban realisim group called the Ashcan School with George Luks, Everett Shinn, John Sloan, and Robert Henri.[4]

Preston was a co-illustrator with his wife, May Wilson Preston, on the "Our Horse" story printed in a 1910 edition of Everybody's Magazine.[5] He exhibited in 1913 at the Armory Show and in the 1910s at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[1] In New York, he exhibited at the MacDowell Club.[6] He became a successful illustrator in the 1920s; he created images for advertisements and magazines. He focused on painting after he moved to East Hampton with his wife in 1935.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Carol Clark (1992). American Drawings and Watercolors. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-87099-639-9.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Charlotte Streifer Rubenstein (1982). American Women Artists: from Early Indian Times to the Present. Avon Publishers. p. 166.
  3. ↑ Natalie A. Naylor (2012). Women in Long Island's Past: A History of Eminent Ladies and Everyday Lives. The History Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-60949-499-5.
  4. ↑ Robert McHenry (1980). Famous American Women: A Biographical Dictionary from Colonial Times to the Present. Courier Dover Publications. pp. 335–336. ISBN 978-0-486-24523-2.
  5. ↑ "Our Horse". Everybody's Magazine 22. North American Company. January–June 1910. pp. 221–230.
  6. ↑ American Art Directory. R.R. Bowker. 1914. p. 230.

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