BLOMFIELD, James J. (originally James Jerris Bloomfield)

1872-1951

Born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, son of Henry Bloomfield artist and engraver. He worked as a junior draftsman in an architectural office. Following his family's move to Calgary in 1887, he studied painting and engraving in Calgary between 1887-1889. He likely received early instruction from his father in water colour and stained glass. James spent a period on the plains in his early teens as a cowpuncher. On his return home he followed his father's profession including learning the fine art of stained glass. When the family moved to New Westminster in 1889 his father opened the first art glass business in B.C. In 1894 James illuminated an address to welcome the Governor General of Canada, Lord Aberdeen. Aberdeen was so impressed with the young man's talent that he sponsored his art education in England and Belgium. Subsequently Bloomfield studied at the Art Students' League of New York. In 1899 he studied with art glass firms in Chicago, New Orleans, London and Manchester. He sent window designs from England to his father's firm for the memorial windows honouring Bishop Sillitoe in Holy Trinity Cathedral, New Westminster. His brother Charles was also employed in his father's firm. James returned to B.C. as a skilled designer, stained glass artist, water colourist, and etcher. About this time he dropped one of the 'O's from his name. He decorated, along with firm members, the Parliament Buildings and memorial windows for Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria. In Vancouver he designed the Queen Victoria memorial fountain for Stanley Park. He made a special study of the Indian tribes of the Pacific Coast and applied this subject matter to many of his own designs and paintings. In 1907 he went back to the U.S. to the State of Washington, the American Mid-west and Chicago where he was professor of design at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. By 1918 he worked for the Christian Science Monitor as staff writer in Boston. In 1920 he returned to Canada and settled in Toronto. There he did many paintings of churches and his work was held in high regard for its accuracy in architec­tural detail. He designed the entrance walls of a Toronto Bathing Pavilion, in a technique called sgraffito, by which a layer of coloured plaster is laid over a dry underlayer and while the top layer is still damp, it is incised with designs revealing the underlayer. In his painting Blomfield was described by A.H. Robson, in 1932 as follows, "As a painter he is best known for his work in water colour, in which medium he paints with a fine freedom, if somewhat traditional in execution. While he has produced many pictures of the mountains and plains, his work in Toronto and its environs constitute his most important contribution to painting." As a water colourist he was cited by William Colgate in 1943 for his attention to changing skies, the reflec­tion of light on the water, light and shadow on distant landscape, scenes of his neighbourhood done in joyous colour. In 1951 Blomfield died in Toronto from injuries he had received when struck by an automobile. He married Mary Diamond of Belleville, Ontario, in 1902. She died in 1932. They had no children. His work was shown in several Toronto galleries including The Carroll Gallery (1923) and Maloney's Art Gallery (1933).
 

References

Toronto Telegram, Apr. 21, 1923 "Lots of Atmosphere Here - Verdict of Artist"
Ibid, Dec. 3, 1932 "Arts and Artists - Toronto Painters Finds Beauty in Out-of-the-Way Places That Are Our Own"
Canadian Landscape Painters by Albert H. Robson, Ryerson, Tor., 1932, P.204
Toronto Saturday Night, Apr. 9, 1933 "Pleasing Pictures" by Jean Graham
Canadian Art, Its Origin and Development by William Colgate, Ryerson, Tor. (1943) (Paperb. 1967), P.105-6
Globe & Mail, Tor., Nov. 26, 1946 "Church Beauty Lives In Blomfield's Art"
Toronto Star, June 25, 1951 "Artist James Blomfield Is 26th Traffic Fatality"
Early Painters and Engravers in Canada by J. Russell Harper, UTP, Tor., 1970, P.36 (entry on his father)
Rainbows In Our Walls by Robert Watt, Exhibit, Vancouver Centennial Museum, 9 Dec. 1978 - Mar. 18, 1979
Canadian Art Sales Index Ed. A.R. Westbridge, Westb. Pub's Ltd., Van. (see various years)

 
Colin S. MacDonald

A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker
National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada