Standard reference sources usually give Webb’s birth year as 1825. He was in fact born at Glebe Place, Chelsea, on 11th April 1835, the third child and second son of Archibald Webb (b.c.1792–1883), marine and coastal painter, and his wife Ellen (née de Lawtre) who married in March 1831. His elder brother was Byron Webb (b.11th December 1831–d.August 1867) also a good painter of horses, hunting and especially Scottish Highland animal subjects, who exhibited at the Royal Academy, Society of British Artists and elsewhere from 1846 to 1866. James’s other siblings were Leonora (b.1833), Annette (b.1837, d.pre-1841), Archibald (b.1839); Thomas Warburton (b.1841); Ellen Elizabeth (b.1842, d.pre-1844), Ellen Clara (b.1844) and John Warburton (1847–1869).
At the 1841 census the Webbs were at Trafalgar Lodge in King’s Road Chelsea, head of the household being Archibald’s father, William Webb, a 70-year-old ‘Professor of Dancing’. They were still there at the 1851 and 1861 counts although William and his wife Mary disappear after 1851. In that year Archibald is listed as ‘Artist and Professor of Dancing’, James as a 15-year-old ‘Artist Graduate’ and Ellen Clara and John make their last appearance, so presumably also died as children. In 1861 Archibald junior and Thomas are both listed as ‘Farmer[s] in America, home for a few weeks’, while Leonora had by then married Alfred H. Page, a coal exporter and ship broker with Cardiff connections, and by 1880 they too had moved to America to farm, apparently in Virginia.
James married his Northern-Irish-born wife, Jane (b.c.1835, at Newry) in the 1860s but they appear to have had no children. In 1871 they were at 61 Belsize Park Road, with his mother Ellen (66) and father, now 78 and listed as a ‘retired artist’ apparently living with them, and other members of their extended family. These included a young cousin, Amy Hutchinson, who was still with them ten years later at 43, Abbey Road Marylebone.
Webb was presumably a pupil of his father; if a ‘graduate’ of more formal teaching, where is not yet known. He first exhibited at the British Institution in 1852 and then regularly there and at the RA and elsewhere to 1889. His subjects were mainly coastal views including in the Netherlands, France, Italy and southern Spain but he also painted river scenes, including on the Rhine and its tributaries, and inland British landscapes. He often worked on a large scale and took dramatic liberties with topography for effect, but his possible travels are only evidenced by his subjects.
Webb’s work earned him a considerable surplus to invest. In 1872 he made some £50,000 by stock-market speculation and by 1877–1880 he was a shareholder in two banks, one successful. By November 1889 he was freeholder of about 27 houses and plots of land in Worthing, Sussex, the former leased to good occupiers, but his more recent stock-market losses had by then left him unable to meet his mortgage commitments and he filed for bankruptcy. Press reports of January 1890 give his London address (probably an accommodation one) as 47 Piccadilly and formerly of Albert Gate Studios, Knightsbridge but he also had a home in Worthing, where all his real estate was sold by auction in April 1890 to meet liabilities of £51,750 against cash assets of just over £4,300. He estimated that his properties there were worth just over £47,900 but they raised under £15,000 according to the reported sale figures (West Sussex Gazette, 24th April). ‘Mr Webb’ – apparently himself – bought back Richmond House, Tennyson Road for £630, though it seems unlikely he was able to retain it.
When finally discharged in August 1892 his address was given as Manor Mansions, Belsize Park Gardens, London, and the small dividends paid to his creditors suggest he was then, in effect, destitute. His last exhibitions appear to have been of recent sketches and pictures ‘at home and abroad’ in February 1889 at Thomas Maclean’s gallery in London and two works at the SBA in 1888/1889 submitted from 44 Piccadilly. An exhibition sale of his pictures and sketches on a ‘must be sold’ basis also concluded at the Central Exchange, Newcastle in mid-February 1890 (Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 14th February).
A report in the St James’s Gazette of 12th March 1895 suggests he died shortly before of influenza, of which there was a London epidemic that year. Where is not clear but the only James Webb who then died in or near London aged 60 (of which he was just a few weeks short), did so in the Dartford registry district. This includes Gravesend so it is just possible he died on the point of sailing to join his brothers and sister in America.
Edited from Art UK’s Art Detective discussions ‘Could this painting depict the island of Ischia, Bay of Naples?’ and ‘Does anyone recognise this location?’. Further bankruptcy information from British Newspaper Archive press cuttings kindly supplied by Krystyna Matyjaskiewicz, May 2022
James married his Northern-Irish-born wife, Jane (b.c.1835, at Newry) in the 1860s but they appear to have had no children. In 1871 they were at 61 Belsize Park Road, with his mother Ellen (66) and father, now 78 and listed as a ‘retired artist’ apparently living with them, and other members of their extended family. These included a young cousin, Amy Hutchinson, who was still with them ten years later at 43, Abbey Road Marylebone.
Webb was presumably a pupil of his father; if a ‘graduate’ of more formal teaching, where is not yet known. He first exhibited at the British Institution in 1852 and then regularly there and at the RA and elsewhere to 1889. His subjects were mainly coastal views including in the Netherlands, France, Italy and southern Spain but he also painted river scenes, including on the Rhine and its tributaries, and inland British landscapes. He often worked on a large scale and took dramatic liberties with topography for effect, but his possible travels are only evidenced by his subjects.
Webb’s work earned him a considerable surplus to invest. In 1872 he made some £50,000 by stock-market speculation and by 1877–1880 he was a shareholder in two banks, one successful. By November 1889 he was freeholder of about 27 houses and plots of land in Worthing, Sussex, the former leased to good occupiers, but his more recent stock-market losses had by then left him unable to meet his mortgage commitments and he filed for bankruptcy. Press reports of January 1890 give his London address (probably an accommodation one) as 47 Piccadilly and formerly of Albert Gate Studios, Knightsbridge but he also had a home in Worthing, where all his real estate was sold by auction in April 1890 to meet liabilities of £51,750 against cash assets of just over £4,300. He estimated that his properties there were worth just over £47,900 but they raised under £15,000 according to the reported sale figures (West Sussex Gazette, 24th April). ‘Mr Webb’ – apparently himself – bought back Richmond House, Tennyson Road for £630, though it seems unlikely he was able to retain it.
When finally discharged in August 1892 his address was given as Manor Mansions, Belsize Park Gardens, London, and the small dividends paid to his creditors suggest he was then, in effect, destitute. His last exhibitions appear to have been of recent sketches and pictures ‘at home and abroad’ in February 1889 at Thomas Maclean’s gallery in London and two works at the SBA in 1888/1889 submitted from 44 Piccadilly. An exhibition sale of his pictures and sketches on a ‘must be sold’ basis also concluded at the Central Exchange, Newcastle in mid-February 1890 (Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 14th February).
A report in the St James’s Gazette of 12th March 1895 suggests he died shortly before of influenza, of which there was a London epidemic that year. Where is not clear but the only James Webb who then died in or near London aged 60 (of which he was just a few weeks short), did so in the Dartford registry district. This includes Gravesend so it is just possible he died on the point of sailing to join his brothers and sister in America.
Edited from Art UK’s Art Detective discussions ‘Could this painting depict the island of Ischia, Bay of Naples?’ and ‘Does anyone recognise this location?’. Further bankruptcy information from British Newspaper Archive press cuttings kindly supplied by Krystyna Matyjaskiewicz, May 2022
Text source: Art Detective
