Bronze Age Gold from Wales

James Charles was born in Warrington, the son of the Welsh cabinetmaker and designer Richard Charles. In 1872 he entered the Royal Academy schools before going to study in Paris. There, he was drawn to Impressionism, and particularly the 'plein-air' movement. On his return to Britain, he exhibited regularly, and had some success abroad, winning medals at the Paris 'Exposition Universelle' of 1889, and the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. This work, exhibited in the 1913-14 Cardiff 'Exhibition of Works by Certain Modern Artists of Welsh Birth or Extraction', represents the moderately progressive 'British Impressionism' associated with the New English Art Club between the 1890s and the First World War.