James Charles (1851-1906)

James Charles studied under Sir Luke Fildes at the Royal Academy and subsequently at the Académie Julian in Paris and, like Clausen, was influenced by plein-air painting. He exhibited at The Royal Academy, The Grosvenor Gallery and The New English Art Club and won medals at the Paris Exposition and the Chicago World's Fair, but he never achieved the recognition he deserved in this country during his lifetime. Boys and girls come out to play is undated, but it's rich surface impasto is characteristic of his later work and this idyllic scene of children playing, most probably painted near his home at Bosham in Sussex, relates closely to The Picnic (Warrington Museum and Art Gallery).