By 1861, it had settled at Valebrook, a large eighteenth-century house situated just outside Hastings. This remained in the family at least until the artist’s death.

Though Francis James was educated privately, little more is known of his development before 1871, when he turned 22. According to the Census for that year, he was a student lodging at 7 Hogarth Terrace, Chiswick, though, again, nothing is known of the subject of his studies. During the decade, he served for some time as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy, but had resigned his position by 1881, when he was living with his mother and an aunt at Valebrook. He is said to suffered from illness for most of his life, and it may have been his health that led him to give up an active life and focus on watercolour painting.

James taught himself to paint by studying works in major galleries in Britain and abroad (and he often wintered on the Continent for the sake of his health). He was influenced at first by Peter de Wint, and then by the Impressionists. By the late 1870s, he had entered the circle of James McNeill Whistler, and became a frequent visitor to the artist’s studios in Cheyne Walk and, later, Tite Street, both in Chelsea. With Theodore Roussel, he became one of Whistler’s closest friends, and was one of the few men never to quarrel with him. As the result of his association with Whistler, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1884, and became a member of the New English Art Club in 1888. He was one of the artists represented in the key exhibition of London Impressionists mounted at the Goupil Gallery in December 1889, and held his first solo show at the Dudley Gallery in 1890 (Walter Sickert, a fellow protégé of Whistler, writing the preface to its catalogue). By this time, he may have taken a studio at 39a Queen Square, Bloomsbury.

During the 1890s, James became a friend of his Sussex neighbour, Hercules Brabazon Brabazon, who lived at Oaklands, Sedlescombe, and he developed his characteristic style under Brabazon’s influence. When Philip Wilson Steer proposed Brabazon as a member of the New English Art Club in 1891, it was James who seconded. James’s development was showcased in solo shows at E J van Wisselingh’s Dutch Gallery, Brook Street, in 1893, 1896 and 1901, and also in Frederick Wedmore’s article, ‘Mr Francis E James’s Watercolours’, published in The Studio in 1898. Illustrations and references in Wedmore’s article indicate the range of James’s sketching tours by this time, from the shopfronts of Bewdley, Worcestershire, to the churches of Germany and Italy. Wedmore noted that he had also spent ‘several months’ sojourn’ at the nursery of the ‘orchid king’, H F C Sander, in St Albans, Hertfordshire (page 266). Certainly, he became as well known as a flower painter as a landscapist – favourite blooms including roses, wallflowers and geraniums – and there is evidence that he was also a serious gardener.

From about 1900, James was increasingly attracted by the coastline of Devon. Early in 1901, he painted at Kingswear, on the estuary of the Dart, in the south of the county. Then, later the same year, he settled at Windycroft, a house on the outskirts of Instow, on the north coast, on the estuary of the Torridge. In 1903, in Chelsea, he married Annie Georgiana, widow of the late Philip Scholfield of Maltby Hall, and daughter of T S Gooch, who had been a Captain in the Royal Navy. In 1905, he began a correspondence with the Irish dealer, collector and gallery director, Sir Hugh Lane (which is held in the collections of the National Library of Ireland).

Continuing to exhibit in London, James was lodging at 14/16 179 Milner Street, Chelsea, in April 1911. His later solo shows include those at the Dutch Gallery (1905), the Leicester Galleries (1909), E J van Wisselingh’s Gallery, Grafton Street (1913), and the Fine Art Society (1919). From 1906, he also contributed to the annual exhibitions of flower paintings organised by the Baillie Gallery. He was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1908, and a full member in 1916. In 1911, Frederick Charles Mulock, who lived in Instow, exhibited a portrait of James at the New English Art Club. It showed him in his studio, seated in a wheelchair and holding a crutch.

In 1913, Francis James and his wife moved up the River Torridge to settle in an eighteenth-century house at 42 South Street, Great Torrington. He lived his last years in this small market town, dying there on 25 August 1920. A memorial exhibition was held at the Leicester Galleries in May 1921.

His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum and the V&A; and Manchester Art Gallery.