James MacDonald Barnsley (1861 - 1929) Watercolor & Gouache, Signed Lower Left, Measures (12.5 x 9.5 inches) w/frame (20 x 17 inches) Barnsley, a native of Ontario, studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts in Missouri between 1879 and 1882. His mother decided to move to St. Louis in 1875 after his father's death and a fire that destroyed the family business. In 1882, he went to Paris, where he lived for five years. He was moderately successful there and won many prizes for his works. After returning to Canada, he was hospitalized in 1892 because of schizophrenic breakdown, and he never painted again. Many of the works now in the National Gallery and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts were acquired during that period and included five oils, one watercolour, two sketch books, a number of unbound drawings and one etching as well as a scrapbook of over 140 drawings, the acquisition history and attribution of which were unknown.

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