Born in Wales in 1887, James Dickson Innes was a landscape painter who specialized in mountain scenes. He was educated at Christ College, Brecon and the Carmarthen School of Art before winning a scholarship to the Slade School in London where he stayed for two years.
Despite ill health he travelled extensively in Europe, studying painting and spending time with John Fothergill, Derwent Lees and Augustus John.
His early work consisted of small scale watercolours but he progressed to oils and developed an individual style, characterised by jewel bright colours, inspired by his travels to the continent.
He exhibited his first picture at the New English Art Club when he was 19 years of age and showed an exhibition of water-colours at the Chenil Gallery in 1910. An exhibition of his work was shown at the Tate Gallery in 1921-2 and a further memorial exhibition at the Chenil Gallery in 1923. His work is represented in the collections of the National Museum of Wales at Cardiff, the Tate Gallery, London, the Temple Newsam Gallery, Leeds, the Manchester City Art Gallery, and the Aberdeen Art Gallery. He died in 1914 aged just 27.