James Orrock

​Biography

In 1866, James moved to London to become a professional painter, settling in Bloomsbury, living at 17 Brunswick Square (1867), 6 Bedford Place (1868) and then 43 Bloomsbury Square (by 1872). In 1870, he took lessons from William Leighton Leitch who, in the following year, proposed him as an associate of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours. Four years later, in 1875, he became a full member. Becoming active and influential in the affairs of the society, he was chiefly responsible for its new gallery, which opened in Piccadilly in 1883, for reconstituting the institute, and for gaining the royal charter in 1885. He was also elected to the membership of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oils in 1883. Specialising in producing watercolours in an early nineteenth-century manner, he possessed the gift to promote both the English watercolour tradition and his place within it through articles and lectures. He also evolved his passion for collecting into a secondary career as an art dealer, Lord Leverhulme becoming a particularly important client. From 1892, he lived at 48 Bedford Square, a fine Adam house that provided a suitable setting for these activities.
Late in his career, Orrock illustrated some books, most notably W S Crockett’s In the Border Country (1906) and two by W S Sparrow: Mary Queen of Scots (1906, with his friend, Sir James Linton) and Old England (1908).
His last years were spent at The Chestnuts, Shepperton-on-Thames, Middlesex, and he died there on 10 May 1913. His wife had died two years earlier.
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the V&A; and the Lady Lever Art Gallery (Port Sunlight).

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Works

James Orrock
​Hampton Lucy, Wawrickshire