# Charles James Lewis artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/charles-james-lewis/
Profile generated: 2026-05-30T07:12:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Death date: 1892-02-28
- Nationality: English
- Common media: oil painting, watercolour

## About Charles James Lewis

Charles James Lewis (1830–1892) was an English painter who worked in both oils and watercolours. Born in London, he became known for landscape subjects that reflect the Victorian-era tradition of naturalistic British landscape painting. Lewis exhibited widely during his lifetime and his work demonstrates the period's interest in pastoral scenery, coastal views, and rural settings rendered with careful attention to light and atmosphere. He died in Chelsea on 28 February 1892. Lewis is recorded in major scholarly references including Bénézit's Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres and the Witt Checklist of British Artists, confirming his recognized place within the Victorian painting tradition. With over 200 works documented in auction databases, collectors encounter his paintings with some regularity on the secondary market.

## Common works and media

Lewis is best known for landscape paintings executed in both oil and watercolour. Common subjects include rural countryside views, coastal scenes, pastoral settings, and figure compositions within landscape settings. Watercolour studies and drawings also appear in auction records. Collectors may encounter framed watercolours, cabinet-sized oil paintings, and occasional larger exhibition-scale pieces.

## Market and appraisal context

Lewis's paintings appear regularly at auction, where landscape compositions in oil and watercolour are the most commonly encountered categories. Factors that may affect appraisal include the medium, with oils generally commanding higher values than works on paper, as well as the size, condition, and compositional quality of the landscape subject. Provenance linking a work to a notable collection or exhibition history can also add significance. As with many Victorian landscape painters, the market is moderate, and attribution is best confirmed through signature examination, style analysis, and reference to published catalogues such as Bénézit and the Witt Checklist.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from authority files and institutional databases with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/49799
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18670876
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500000934
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/95686318/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_James_Lewis