Although his formative years were spent primarily in Europe, James Wilson Morrice is regarded as one of Canada’s most prominent Impressionists.

Born into a wealthy Toronto family in 1865, Morrice later studied law at the University of Toronto during which he developed an interest in watercolour.

In 1890, after exhibiting with both the RCA and the AAM in the late 1880s, Morrice departed for Europe and began studying painting at the Academie Julian in Paris. A significant influence on his work during this period was American painter James McNeill Whistler.

Morrice began to exhibit with the Salon d’Automne in Paris in 1905, eventually becoming a member of the Autumn Salon in both London and Paris.

For most of his life he traveled almost continuously, and as a result became intimately familiar with his material as he returned often to his favourite sketching grounds in Venice, Brittany, Paris, North Africa and Quebec. It was during his travels to North Africa that Morrice developed a friendship Henri Matisse, who, along with Cezanne, was to increasingly influence his work after 1910.

During his career he exhibited with the AAM from 1889 to 1916, and, after having shown his work with the Academy since 1889, Morrice was elected an honourary member of the RCA in 1914. By 1922 he had ceased working, and two years later he passed away in Tunis as the result of numerous health problems.