James Chapin

James Ormsbee Chapin was a painter and illustrator who studied in New York and Antwerp and specialized in portraits; five of his portraits of well-known personalities made it to the front page of the prestigious “Time” magazine. He later taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Chapin’s scenes of sports and country life were influenced by European art. He eventually settled in New York and New Jersey. His son, James Forbes Chapin (1919-2009), was a well-known jazz drummer from the 1940s to the 1960s, and his grandson Harry Chapin Foster (1942-81), better known as Harry Chapin, became a well-known songwriter and folk singer (Cat’s in the Cradle) and died in a car crash at the age of 38. None were related to artist Francis Chapin, who took part in the same event in 1932.

The Negro Boxer was painted by James Chapin in 1927, like all three entries in oil on canvas. The painting was 86 x 76 cm in size and was on loan from businessman Merle H. Collins (1878-1943) and the Cedar Rapids Art Association in 1932. Unlike this painting, the other two ran in the competition. A Prize Fighter and His Manager of 1930 was sized 53 x 48 cm. The painting showed a sharp contrast between the fighter and his manager, reinforcing the fighter’s vulnerability and precarious future. The attribution of Batter Up, depicting a scene from a baseball game, is unclear. Submitted in 1932, the work was mentioned several times in newspapers and exhibition catalogs over the next two decades. The 1946 U.S. copyright catalog listed a large oil painting (102 x 150 cm) by Chapin with this title, said to have been painted in 1940. This painting is possibly identical to the one from 1932.