Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pearson, James
PEARSON, JAMES (d. 1805), glass-painter, was a native of Dublin, but was trained as an artist in Bristol. He had a large practice as a glass-painter, and introduced some improvements into the colouring of glass. Pearson executed on glass, in 1776, ‘Christ and the Four Evangelists’ for Brasenose College, Oxford, and ‘The Brazen Serpent,’ from the designs of J. H. Mortimer, R.A., for the east window of Salisbury Cathedral, inserted at the expense of the Earl of Radnor. He was assisted in his work by his wife, Eglington Margaret Pearson (d. 1823), daughter of Samuel Paterson the auctioneer, who sold the first collection of pieces of glass-painting brought from abroad, and they together copied some of the paintings by the old masters, such as ‘The Salutation’ by Carlo Maratti, ‘The Temptation of St. Anthony’ by Teniers, &c., which they transferred to glass. A copy of Guido's ‘Aurora’ by Mr. and Mrs. Pearson is in the collection of the Duke of Norfolk at Arundel Castle. A collection of small paintings on glass, executed by Mr. and Mrs. Pearson conjointly, was sold by auction in 1797. Specimens of Pearson's work are to be seen in the churches of St. Botolph, Aldersgate, and St. Giles's, Cripplegate; and also in the parish churches of Battersea and Wandsworth. Pearson died in 1805. Mrs. Pearson executed two sets of copies from Raphael's cartoons, one purchased by the Marquis of Lansdowne, and the other by Sir Gregory Page-Turner, bart. While she was making a third copy, a too close application to her art brought on an illness of which she died on 14 Feb. 1823. Mr. and Mrs. Pearson exhibited paintings at the Society of Artists' exhibitions in 1775, 1776, and 1777, and were then residing in Church Street, St. John's, Westminster.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Winston's Memoirs of the Art of Glass-Painting; Dallaway's Anecdotes of the Arts in England; Smith's Antiquities of Westminster; Notes and Queries, 6th ser. xii. 255.]