James Edward Freeman

1808-1884

James Edward Freeman, also known as Ferrarine, was among the earliest American artists to reside in Italy, beginning a centuries-long expatriate tradition. He received a political appointment in 1841 as a consul for the Papal States, and from then on, he lived most of his life in Rome. Portraiture and landscape were the favored subjects in American art. Still, Freeman was unusual in that he preferred scenes from everyday life or invented subjects, such as this one of a scantily-clad woman with an exotically colored parrot. Nudity and alluring women were not at all appreciated by American audiences then, which was one of the reasons Freeman chose to stay abroad. He advised wealthy Americans about collecting art from Europe. He wrote one of the first accounts of his fellow citizens who forsook the United States to live a more artistic existence in the classical culture of Rome.