This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Known for playful depictions of fairies and animals in settings with large plants and flowers, James Gookins was also a portrait and landscape painter and illustrator whose subjects including the Civil War and the American West.
Much of his career was spent in Indiana, where he was born in Terre Haute and was active until 1865. He had a studio in Indianapolis from 1873 to 1880 and 1887 to 1889. From 1880 to 1883, he was again in Terre Haute. Illinois was the second state where he spent much time including after the Civil War and from 1883 to 1887 and 1889 to 1904 in Chicago. He served two terms as the Director of the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. From 1870 to 1873, he studied at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany.
During the early part of the Civil War, Gookins was an illustrator for "Harper's Weekly" and was a member of the staff of Lew Wallace, the general who successfully defended Washington DC and later wrote the novel "Ben Hur".
In the summer of 1866, Gookins organized eight persons including artists Henry Chapman Ford and his wife and Henry Elkins to join an emigrant train to Denver. From that trip, "Harper's" published eight sketches by Gookins including a caricature of Denver and an image of Fort Wicked, Colorado.
He died on May 23, 1904 while on a visit to New York City
Sources include:
Peter Falk. "Who Was Who in American Art"
Peggy and Harold Samuels, "The Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West"
Robert Taft, "Artists and Illustrators of the Old West"
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