Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/James, William (fl.1760-1771)
JAMES, WILLIAM (fl. 1760–1771), landscape-painter, practised in London, residing for some years in Maiden Lane, and later in May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane. He exhibited with the Incorporated Society of Artists from 1761 to 1768, and at the Royal Academy from 1769 to 1771. He was an imitator of Canaletto, and painted views of London, chiefly on the river and in St. James's Park, but his works have only an antiquarian interest. They are hard and mechanical in execution, the ruler being largely used in the lines of the buildings, and the water conventionally treated. In 1768 James sent to the Society of Artists, and in the two following years to the Royal Academy, some views of Egyptian temples, but as he was never out of England these are presumed to have been copies. The date of his death is not recorded. Seven of his pictures are at Hampton Court.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting; Redgrave's Century of Painters; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Law's Catalogue of Pictures at Hampton Court.]