Biography from Charleston Renaissance Gallery:
| James Shegogue, of French descent, was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 22, 1806. Several works which he completed in Charleston suggest that he received professional training there. An oil miniature of one of the Shegogue family's household slaves is in the Robert P. Coggins Collection. The artist's self portrait was also executed when Shegogue lived in Charleston.
Apart from several trips to Europe, Shegogue lived in New York City from 1833 to 1862. He exhibited at the American Academy in 1833 and at the National Academy of Design nearly every year from 1834 to 1861. He was elected an Associate of the National Academy in 1841, a full member in 1843, and at various times served on the Academy's Council and on the Arrangements Committee for the annual exhibition. From 1849 to 1852 Shegogue was Corresponding Secretary of the National Academy of Design.
He also exhibited at the American Art Union, and was a member of The Old Sketch Club, The Century and the Artists Sketch Club. In 1862 he moved to the banks of the Mount Hope River in Warrenville, Connecticut, where he lived until his death on April 7, 1877.
He was an excellent linguist and is reported to have enjoyed a good income throughout his artistic career. His works are in the collections of the city of New York, the New York Historical Society and the Brooklyn Museum.
Shegogue painted portraits, landscapes, history and genre scenes. In 1860 he painted "Zouave Encampment" - qui vive, which was exhibited at the National Academy in 1861 as the property of one Mr. Gilbert. There was also a watercolor study done for this painting.
The term "Zouave" is derived from the Zouaoua tribe who served as light infantry troops in French colonial Algeria about 1830. After the Crimean War, Elmer E. Ellsworth and others popularized the Zouave idea in the United States, and at the outbreak of the Civil War a number of Union and Confederate regiments modeled themselves on the Zouaves. The prime attraction was the Zouaves' distinctive, bright-colored uniform, which instilled a sense of pride and military bearing in the wearers. It consisted of baggy trousers, gaiters, turban or fez and short, open jacket. Emulation of the Zouave idea extended to mastering the firing and re-loading of a musket in the prone position. The uniform, however, proved to be impractical under field conditions. When torn or faded it was not easily replaced, and it made a splendid target for the enemy. Most units abandoned it fairly quickly.
THE SOUTH ON PAPER: LINE, COLOR AND LIGHT, Robert M. Hicklin Jr., Inc., Spartanburg, South Carolina, 1985, p. 57.
Copyright 1985
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