Active in New York and New England from the 1900s to the 1930s, Connecticut-born James Britton was well known as both an artist and a writer.  In New York, Britton formed an exhibiting group of artists called The Eclectics, which included at times Maurice Prendergast, George Luks, Philip L. Hale and Theresa Bernstein.  Though initially a portrait painter, Britton also produced hundreds of oil landscapes, and experimented successfully with woodcuts. He exhibited regularly in New York City, Connecticut, Boston, and Gloucester, Massachusetts.  

         As an art journalist, Britton wrote criticism for American Art News (forerunner of today's ARTnews) and other publications, as well as producing his own periodicals.   He campaigned tirelessly for better recognition of American artists, whose talents he felt were second to none.  In addition to his published writings, Britton maintained diaries over some 30 years, in which he recorded in vivid detail the art world of his time.  Britton’s papers are now at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art, available online at the Archives’ website, www.aaa.si.edu.

         James Britton’s art was seldom seen in the decades following his death in 1936.   Efforts to reintroduce his work to the public in the 1990s attracted renewed attention from critics and curators, and a series of museum and gallery exhibitions have followed, including a major retrospective in 2005, James Britton: Connecticut Artist, at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London, CT.  The James Britton Estate and this website are administered by the artist's granddaughters, Barbara and Ursula. 

         To see examples of Britton's art, please check out our online gallery, below.  There is also a link below to Britton works held in public collections.