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About James Lewin
The focus of this painting, half-genre scene, half-landscape, is the duo of sharpshooters on the river bank, positioned behind a rectangular-shaped outcropping. Wild trees fan out along diagonals that lead the eye to the figure group. The right half of the picture is a pure Hudson River School landscape, bathed in a gentle mist. Lewin was a fine Rhode Island landscape painter who also executed still-lifes and engravings. Most of the extant works by Lewin are in private collections. John Nelson Arnold, an intimate friend of the artist, included him in his Art and Artists of Rhode Island (Providence: 1905). For Arnold,
there was a poetic element in [Lewin’s paintings], a subtle, romantic quality that appealed to everyone. This was before the days of fads in art, when the artist went humbly to nature and made conscientious transcript of the woods and meadows, skies and streams. . . . His delicate and exquisite creations, both in landscape and still life, were eagerly sought for by art lovers. . . .
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Paintings by James Lewin
| The Sharpshooter |
| oil on canvas: 20 x 26 inches |
| signed and dated 1860: lower right |
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