Born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, James McLean studied at the Pennsylvania Academy under Daniel Garber, Charles Garner, and Joseph Pearson. In 1926, he won the prestigious Cresson Scholarship, and spent the summer in Italy, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. McLean returned to North Carolina in 1929 to establish and direct the Southern School of Creative Arts in Raleigh, but the economic depression caused its closure. In the mid-1930s, he joined the Works Progress Administration's Federal Arts Project, for which he created murals in his native state and directed the Raleigh Art Center. He also taught at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A figure, landscape, and portrait painter, McLean often incorporated dynamic, modern elements of American scene painting in his work, as portrayed in this Charleston street view. RS

Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston