An Itinerant Life in Portraiture
James Bowman was an American itinerant artist and portrait painter born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. After traveling to Chillicothe, Ohio, to learn carpentry, he met the painter J. T. Turner, who taught him the rudiments of portrait painting. His professional career saw him painting in Pittsburgh and other communities during the early 1820s. He also worked in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he painted portraits of the local aristocracy, and in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
Bowman's travels eventually led him to Philadelphia, London, Paris, and Italy. In London, he lived in Buckingham and painted distinguished families, including the Lord Chancellor and Governor Clarkson. While in Paris, he became acquainted with the Marquis de Lafayette and lived with his family for nine months. His later career included periods in Charleston, South Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Quebec, Canada; Montreal, Canada; Toronto, Canada; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; and Green Bay, Wisconsin, before settling in Rochester, New York.
Professional Engagements and Legacy
Throughout his travels, Bowman sought to capture the likenesses of various notable figures. His notable portraits include:
- Edward Stabler
- William Cranch
- Bertel Thorvaldsen
- General LaFayette
- James Fenimore Cooper
- Benedict Joseph Fenwick
- Mary Anne Ursula Moffatt
- William B. Slaughter
- Henry Dodge
- William "Tiger" Dunlop
- John Frothingham
In Detroit, Bowman opened a studio and taught his pupil, John Mix Stanley. He also provided art lessons at the Ursuline nuns’ Mount Benedictine Academy in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and in Quebec. Bowman died unexpectedly in Rochester, New York, on May 18, 1842.
