Topping, James (1879-1948)
"From Down In The Hills O’ Brown County," by Frank Hohenberger
Nashville, Ind. June 19, 1926.

“Among the group- of artists that first visited Brown County last fall was James Topping, Chicago, who bunked with Oscar Erickson, also of the “Windy City,’ at the Fred Vance cabin on Hoopole Ridge. Topping is a quiet, unassuming little fellow. No one seemed to be able to learn what he thought of the county’s hills. He seemed to flit here and there and always was a busy body. What he accomplished and whether he would come back again this year seemed a blank as far as coworkers were concerned.”

“Mr. Topping is best known among art lovers for his poetical interpretation of our native scenery. He does not resort to fictitious devices for emphasizing his subjects but relies on sound draftsmanship and a proper regard for values and colors. He works with a full brush and inclines to simplicity in handling, but never turns out empty canvases.”

“James Topping was born in Cleator Moor, Cumberland, England, Feb. 25, 1879, and received his early education at Moor Row Board school. While there he was awarded a South Kensington honorable mention for drawing. In 1887 he engaged in the study of music, but abandoned it three years later to enter the art school of John Adamson, who, however, died one year later. With this small allotment of academic training James, then only a lad of 10 or 11 years, kept on painting and became a member of the Cumberland Society of Arts and Crafts in 1900. It was his father’s intention that he should follow architecture as a profession and arrangements were made with a local architect to employ him as an apprentice. Instead, however, of pursuing this course, he took up the occupation of commercial lithographer in August, 1894, with W. H. Moss & Sons, Ltd., at White Haven, a small fishing port near the Scotch border. In 1903 he came to America and found employment with the Denver Lithographing Company, Denver, Col., but the following year moved to Chicago, where he has since been connected with the Meyercord Company. He was married in 1904 while in Colorado and has one daughter, a winsome lass, still in her teens.”

“Although some of his most interesting works have been painted in the vicinity of Chicago, he has not confined his artistic efforts to this locality. In 1906 and 1907 he painted in Colorado and in the autumns of 1912, 1914 and 1915 in Pennsylvania. Since then he has made trips to Virginia and Kentucky and painted in the Blue Ridge and Clinch mountains and along the Ohio River and Charter’s creek.”

“Mr. Topping is a member of the Palette and Chisel Club, the Chicago Association of Painters and Sculptors, Oak Park Art League and an associate member of the Business Men’s Art Club. “
In writing me recently, Mr. Topping said: “Now as for me to give you a story in writing is a way out of my line. I put all of my stories in paint. But I must say that I never enjoyed a sketching trip any place as much as I did in Brown county and I have done some traveling around.” “It was not just the picturesqueness of the countryside itself, but it was the respect which the people of Nashville showed toward the artists. As for sketching material (I mean paintable subjects), there is more of it within a ten minutes’ walk that I have even been able to find anywhere. Last fall was my first trip down there, but I assure you it is my intention to spend many more Octobers in Nashville. It certainly is the home of the artist.”

Source:
The Indianapolis Star (newspaper, Indianapolis, Indiana) 20 Jun 1926.
___
Obituary
Rites to be Tuesday for James Topping, Eminent Painter, 69

Services for James Topping, 69, considered one of the nation’s most eminent painters of American landscapes and skies, who died Saturday in his home at 541 N. Forest Ave., Oak Park, will be held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the chapel at 318 N. Central ave. He will be buried in Mount Emblem cemetery.

Mr. Topping won many prizes for his paintings, among them, “Wind Among the Trees,” “Allegheny Mountains-Winter,” and “Indian Summer.” His works have been displayed in art salons across the country. He was considered especially superior in his treatment of skies. A native of Cumberland, England, Mr. Topping came to America in 1903. He began his career as a lithographer, but studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and turned to oil painting. He was treasurer and a director of the Palette and Chisel club, and a member of the Lithographers’ Club, the Oak Park Art League, and the Chicago Painters and Sculptors Association. A widower, he leaves a daughter, Mrs. Bewley Miles, three grandchildren and a sister.

Source
The Chicago Tribune, (Newspaper) (Chicago, Illinois) 26 Jul 1948.
Submitted by Edward P. Bentley, Art Researcher and Historian, Greenville, Michigan.

Landscape painter James Topping was born February 25, 1879 in Cleator Moor, Cumberland, England. He took his art training with John Adamson at Cumberland Technical School of Art in England in 1894-1896, and at the Art Institute of Chicago with Louis Wilson in 1904, 1909, 1912-1914. Topping lived, at various times, in England from 1879-1903, moving to Chicago from 1903-1922, and to Oak Park, Illinois from 1922 until his death on July 24, 1948. He married Emily Allen on October 16, 1904 in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Honors awarded James Topping include:
1923 Art Institute of Chicago Municipal Art League Prize
1924 Art Institute of Chicago Robert Rice Jenkins Prize
1924 Palette and Chisel Club annual Gold Medal
1926 (Nov.) Chicago Galleries Association Fourth Purchase Prize
1926 Art Institute of Chicago Martin B. Cahn Prize
1927 Palette and Chisel Club Lydia Bonteaux Purchase Prize
1928 (Nov.) Chicago Galleries Association Purchase Prize
1929 (May) Chicago Galleries Association Sixth Purchase Prize
1929 Art Institute of Chicago Business Men's Art Club Prize
1930 Oak Park Art League Bronze Medal
1942 Association of Chicago Painters & Sculptors Medal

James Topping's group exhibitions:
All-Illinois Society of Fine Art annual 1926
Association of Chicago Painters & Sculptors annual 1927
Boston Art Club
Brown County Art Gallery Association
Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Gallery $100 paintings 1932 (3/1)
Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Gallery Chicago Artists 1933 (2/25)
Chicago Galleries Association
Chicago Galleries Association Prize Winning Pictures 1933
Chicago Galleries Association Ten Artists from Oak Park 1933 (1/14)
Chicago Galleries Association Yuletide Show 1933 (12/6)
Concord, Massachusetts Art Association annual
H. Lieber Company, Indianapolis Brown County Artists 1928
Hamilton Club, Chicago Painters of the Forest Preserve of Cook County 1920
Hoosier Salon 1931-1933, 1935, 1938-1942, 1947
Hummell Memorial Prize 1940
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts 1926, 1929, 1931
Illinois Woman's Athletic Club, Beidler Gallery Men Painters of Chicago, Illinois 1927
Joslyn Art Museum
Mayor LaGuardia National Exhibition of American Art 1937 (7/3)
Midwestern Artist Show eight state tour 1936
Nashville, IN Art Assoc.
National Exhibition of American Art, NYC 1936
Nebraska Art Association annual 1928
Omaha Society of Fine Art 1923
Palette and Chisel Club annual 1928
Palette and Chisel Club annual 1932, 1933, 1939
Palette and Chisel Club Paintings from Fox Lake Camp 1927
Palette and Chisel Club Sale to save the club 1933 (4/1)
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual 1924
Philadelphia Art Club
Proviso Township Schools Oak Park Art League 1929
Tower Town Galleries, Chicago Modern Chicago Artists 1935 (1/2)
West End Woman's Club 1935

James Toppings one, two or three-man exhibitions:
1924 (11/22) Palette and Chisel Club
1925 Oak Park Art League
1930 Chicago Galleries Association
1930 Midland Club of Chicago
1934 Chicago Woman's Club
1935 Chicago Galleries Association
1936 Marshall Field & Company Galleries

Source: http://www.illinoisart.org/biographies/T_Z.htm