James Hope (1818 - 1892) Oil on board, Signed Lower Left, Measures ( 8 x 10 inches) w/frame ( 12 x 14 inches) James Hope was born on November 29, 1818/19 in Drygrange, Roxboroughshire, Scotland. After moving to the United States he became a noted portrait, landscape, and historical genre painter. After the death of his mother, he was brought to Canada by his father, who died of cholera about 1831. According to tradition James Hope was fifteen when he walked from the Canadian farm where he had spent his boyhood to Fairhaven, Vermont, to begin his five-year apprenticeship to a wagon-maker. With the money he saved, he was able to spend a year at Castleton Seminary. Apparently an accident to his ankle, which temporarily confined him to his home, gave him the leisure to try his hand at portraiture, and his first efforts were successful enough for him to set up as a professional artist at West Rutland in 1843.Hope married Julia M. Smith of West Rutland on September 20, 1841.

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