The Old Holton House, Montreal / La vielle maison Holton a Montréal

James Wilson Morrice was born in Montreal in 1865, the son of a wealthy merchant. From 1882 to 1889, he studied in Toronto to become a lawyer. As a student he began to paint landscapes in the Adirondacks and at Lake Champlain. He exhibited a painting with the Royal Canadian Academy in 1888, and in 1889, two of his paintings were hung in the spring show of the Montreal Art Association. When he was 24, he abandoned law to become an artist. He travelled to Europe, where he studied art at the Académie Julian with Henri Harpignies and became friends with Henri Matisse, Albert Marquet, and other avant-garde French artists.