LEWIS, Charles James

1830 - 1892

Charles James Lewis was baptised at St Giles, Camberwell, London on 6 October 1830, son of Charles Thomas Lewis (1798-20 April 1884), a clerk at the bank of England, and his wife Sarah Hyde née Bennett (1805-1872), who married at Tottenham, London on 11 June 1825. In 1851, Charles was a 20-year-old student in painting, living at 17 Nelson Square, Camberwell with his 52-year-old married father Charles and a 64-year-old 'unmarried' Sarah Lewis. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art in 1853, a portrait of 'Miss Shelton', Mary Ann Matilda Hammond Shelton (1831-1908), whom he married at Camberwell in 1854. In 1871, a 50-year-old landscape artist, living at 2 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea with his 48 year old wife 'Marian' and seven of their children. A popular and prolific painter of genre and domestic scenes, he often painted on a smaller scale depicting natural and attractive scenes featuring children as the focal point. A regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy 1853-1890, and at the British Institute, the Society of British Artists, the New Watercolour Society, Grosvenor Gallery, and the New Gallery amongst others. He was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1882, two years before it became 'Royal' and was a member and exhibitor at the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1890-1891 exhibiting in 1890 from 67 Wynstanley Gardens, Kensington, London five watercolours, 'Waiting for the Ferry', 'A Wet Evening', 'A Hay Field', 'A Fisherman's Anchorage' and 'Harvesting' and in 1891 two oils, 'Balmy Sleep' and 'An Old Mill' and three watercolours, 'A Gray Summer's Day', 'The Garden Gate' and 'A Village on the Ouse, moon rising'. Charles James Lewis died at River View, 122 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London on 28 January 1892, aged 61 and buried at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Nelson Square, Peckham
1853 803 Miss Shelton
from 2 Barnard's Inn, Holborn
1855 117 Again returns the day of Sacred Rest

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Works by This Artist