biography of James Milton SESSIONS (1882-1962)

Birth place: Rome, NY

Addresses: Chicago

Profession: Marine painter, illustrator

Studied: AIC, 1903-06.

Exhibited: MMA; AIC; CMA; Milwaukee AM; Campanile Gal., Chicago, 1982

Work: Chicago Tribune Collection; J.P. Speed Mus.; Great Lakes Naval Training Inst.; NY Graphic Soc., "American Masters Collection"; Borg-Warner Collection, Chicago.

Comments: He was a master watercolorist, with a style similar to that of John Whorf, Ogden Pleissner, A. Lassell Ripley, and Sears Gallagher. However, his bouts with alcohol and his self-imposed high standards for finished works led him to destroy many of his watercolors. His love of the sea began as a wheelsman aboard Great Lakes ships from 1906-14. He joined the Illinois Naval Reserve during World War I, and later became a commercial illustrator, primarily with Vogue-Wright Studios in Chicago. In 1933 he began to focus on watercolor. During World War II he was a "brush reporter" of the Pacific Theatre. He also made a 60-painting documentary of jeeps in World War II action for Willys Overland Co. His World War II scenes were the subject of a book, and were exhibited at the MMA. Later, he produced calendars for Brown & Bigelow Co., St. Paul, and many of his hunting and marine watercolors were reproduced by the NY Graphic Society. Sessions traveled extensively around the U.S., painting in Cape Ann (MA), Nova Scotia, the Caribbean, and the Southwest. Signature note: His signature style, with the two flourishing "S's" was consistent.

Sources: Falk, James Sessions (unpub. ms)