Lambdin, James Reid, 1807-1889

James Reid Lambdin was born on May 10, 1807, in Pittsburgh, Pa. He was the son of James and Prudence Lambdin and the brother of Samuel H. Lambdin. He moved to Philadelphia, Pa. in 1823 to pursue a career as an artist under the tutelage of Thomas Sully. He returned to Pittsburgh by 1826 and opened the Pittsburgh Museum of Natural History and Gallery of Fine Art, modeled after Charles Willson Peale's museum in Philadelphia. His collection, which included over fifty paintings and 400 fossils, was welcomed as one of the first public exhibits of art in the West. In 1832, he moved his museum to Louisville, Ky., but eventually settled in Philadelphia in 1837 with his wife, Mary Cochran, and their six children. Once in Philadelphia, he joined the Artists' Society Fund and went on to become president from 1845 to 1867; he also served as director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1845 to 1864 and taught fine arts at the University of Pennsylvania from 1861 to 1866. In 1859, he was appointed by President James Buchanan as one of three United States art commissioners and painted portraits of fifteen U. S. Presidents, becoming one of the most esteemed and prolific American portraitists by the time of his death in 1889.

American artist.

Portrait and miniature painter.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pa. and studied art in Philadelphia under Edward Miles and Thomas Sully. Upon his return to Pittsburgh, he was a proprietor of a museum and oversaw his own art gallery. He later spent many years as an officer of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before his death in Philadelphia.