James Stark was an English landscape painter. A leading member of the Norwich School of painters, he was elected Vice-President of the Norwich Society of Artists in 1828 and their President in 1829. He had wealthy patrons and was consistently praised by the Norfolk press for his successful London career.
Stark was born in Norwich, the youngest son of a dye manufacturer, Michael Stark, who is credited with the invention of the dye known as 'Norwich red'. In 1811, on the completion of his education at Norwich School, he was apprenticed to John Crome, whose influence on his pupil was profound. Stark’s work was exhibited in London as early as 1811 and at the British Institution between 1814 and 1818. In 1814 he moved away from Norwich to London, where he befriended the artist William Collins. In 1819 ill health forced him to return to Norwich, where lived for twenty years. In 1840 he moved to Windsor, where he lived for a decade, continuing to produce landscapes. He returned to London in 1849, residing there until his death in 1859 at the age of 64. He is buried with his family in the Rosary Cemetery in Norwich.
Stark generally worked in oils. His early paintings were followed by woodland scenes, which were often pastiches of the seventeenth century Dutch masters. His work during the 1830s was more successful, with his works displaying a freshness that was previously lacking. Stark produced etchings, watercolours and pencil and chalk drawings, but these are nowadays less well known. In 1834 he published his admired Scenery of the Rivers of Norfolk, containing thirty-six etchings produced by specialist engravers after his own paintings, along with accompanying text for each scene. This ambitious work was well-received at the time, but like similar works it was financially unsuccessful.
James Stark was born in Norwich, the youngest son of Michael Stark (1748–1831), a Scottish-born dyer, and his wife Jane Ivory. James, the youngest son of eight siblings, was christened on 30 November 1794 at the Church of St Michael Coslany, Norwich, close to the family home. His father Michael Stark, who had a literary and scientific background, ran his own dyeing business on Duke Street, and is credited with a number of innovations in the dyeing industry, including the invention of the formula of 'Norwich red'.
James Stark showed a talent for art from an early age. He was educated at Norwich School, where he became friends with John Berney Crome. Two of his pencil drawings were exhibited in Norwich in 1809, and he exhibited for the first time in London in 1811, at the age of seventeen, when his painting A view on King Street river, Norwich was shown at the Royal Academy.
Because of his poor health, which dogged him throughout his life, his ambitions to become a farmer were never realised. In 1811 he was apprenticed to John Berney Crome's father, the landscape artist John Crome, for three years. Two letters from John Crome to his pupil survive. One, dated 3 July 1814 and sent to Starks' house in London, contains a reminder to submit work to the Norwich Society of Artists' forthcoming exhibition. The second letter reveals how Crome was able to impart his knowledge to his pupils. Crome was a strong influence on Stark, who was his favourite pupil, and Crome's preoccupation with depicting trees and woodland scenes led Stark to produce many such scenes himself. He was elected as a member of the Norwich Society of Artists in 1812. He exhibited at the British Institution between 1814 and 1818, winning a prize of 50 pounds in 1818.
In 1814, following the end of his Norwich apprenticeship, Stark moved to London. There he befriended and became influenced by the artist William Collins. In 1817 he became a student at the Royal Academy. The Bathing Place, Morning was sold in 1817 to the Henry Hobart, the Dean of Windsor. For a short period he shared lodgings with the portrait painter Joseph Clover. Both the Marquis of Stafford and the Countess de Grey were their patrons at this time.
After only two years of study, debilitating ill health forced him to return to Norwich for the last time. He was to reside there for nearly twenty years. There he devoted himself to painting the scenery around the city and executing a series of paintings of Norfolk rivers, which were eventually engraved and published in 1834.
On 7 July 1821 he married Elizabeth Younge Dinmore of King's Lynn.
Regarded during his lifetime by his friends as one of the leaders of the Norwich School of painters, he was elected Vice-President of the Norwich Society of Artists in 1828 and President in the following year, at a time when the Society was struggling to survive.
In 1830, he moved to London, taking up residence in Beaumont Row, Chelsea. Elizabeth Stark died in 1834, three years after the birth of their son, Arthur James Stark.
His work during this period in his artistic career became more successful, according to Hemingway. The numerous sketches of the Norfolk countryside he had previously produced gave his exhibited works a freshness that was previously lacking, and which was more appealing to the critics. Cromer, exhibited at the British Institution in 1837, is a good example of this new kind of work, and shows the influence of his friend William Collins and the Norwich artist John Thirtle.

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