[1] After the war he taught drawing for a short period and in 1866 he travelled to Europe where he studied under the genre painter, Edouard Frère in Ecouen.

He returned to America in 1870 and opened an Academy, but was soon drawn back to Europe, settling in Rome for a time and visiting Paris.

[5] In 1879 the Champneys purchased a second home on New York's fashionable Fifth Avenue, where James established a studio.

For this endeavour the pair embarked on travel to North Africa, Spain and Portugal, visiting localities such as Tangier and Tétouan in Morocco, that had not been covered by any of the illustrated magazines at that time.

In Europe they encountered the works of the Spanish realist, Mariano Fortuny and the French painter, Henri Regnault, and spent much of their time following in the artists' footsteps across Spain, France and Morocco.

1874, France), an architect, of Washington; and a daughter, Mrs John Humphreys, known as Marie Champney (b.

Champney's paintings include landscape and genre subjects as well as Orientalist scenes.