James Brade Sword (1839-1915)

American School

LUMINIST SUNSET BY THE SHORE, circa 1885

(#19602)

12 x 20 inches / 19 x 27 period framed

Oil on canvas

Signed lower left: “J.B. Sword”

     LUMINIST SUNSET BY THE SHORE is a striking work by the artist.  He has incorporated a number of figures in the painting.  We see men mending nets and working on their boats, men and women walking along the shore, and others in the shallow waters, possibly digging clams.  The location may be Conanicut Island, as James built a house there in 1883.  Inspired by the views, he spent his summers painting along the shores of the island.

     James Brade Sword was born in Philadelphia.  Although his initial career was as a civil engineer, he later studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy, opening a studio in New York in 1871.  He made sketching trips to such places as the Green Mountains, the Alleghenies, Bar Harbor and Lake George, where he met and painted with Asher B. Durand.  He painted in the Adirondack and White Mountains, and widely along the New England and mid-Atlantic shore.  

     James exhibited his work and held prominent positions in many of Philadelphia’s art organizations, including the Philadelphia Society of Artists, Art Club of Philadelphia, the Brooklyn Art Association, and the Boston Art Club.  He also exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago.

     James Sword is well represented in important Museum and University collections throughout the eastern United States. His 1911 portrait of House of Representatives Speaker John Winston Jones (1791-1848) still hangs in the Capitol in Washington D.C.