I have had the rare opportunity to wake up every morning and view an old 1880 oil painting by the famous British Impressionist  James Charles (1851-1906)

James Charles, Untitled [link]

    It was just a freak accident that I connected with the right dealer at the right time and could buy this painting.  It really belongs in a museum. James Charles's father was a cabinet maker and raised a  gifted child.  He was groomed and accepted into the Royal Academy and a student he apparently made many friends.   Bored with the RA's structure and due to events in the art-world, he dropped out of the RA and joined the impressionists movement.  He finished at the Académie Julian in France and pursued and promoted  the plein-air movement  where basically the artists worked to capture the lighting of out-door nature.   The painting I have is untitled, but consists of a straw thatched roof cabin, a typical scene in some older James Charles paintings.  It's very rich impasto technique gives the scene a 3D look, but still impressionistic.   It is Autumn and a fire burns in the fireplace.  Grasses are dry and trees, while still green but has a brown shade of the seasons change upon them.  Unlike the impressionists like Monet, Degas, Cezanne,  James Charles was not shy of detail.  He will add these amazingly detailed highlights to the larger brush work that complete the picture as can be seen in the in the roof and grasses. I've really come to enjoy this painting more and more.   Even more impressive when you come to appreciate that it is plein-air and was all done outdoors at the scene being painted.