Background
He was born James Alfred Bloomfield in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. The middle name he added from his mother"s maiden name later in life when he also dropped the second "o" in Bloomfield.
He was born James Alfred Bloomfield in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. The middle name he added from his mother"s maiden name later in life when he also dropped the second "o" in Bloomfield.
He is best known for his design of the coat of arms of Vancouver and as a pioneer in the field of stained glass art in Canada, with an extensive body of works completed in British Columbia and Ontario, including the Beechwood Cemetery Mausoleum in Canada"s national cemetery in Ottawa. In Canada he studied painting and engraving in Calgary, Alberta (1887, 1889).
He lived in Toronto for the last 30 years of his life. He moved to Canada with his family after working for a period of time as a junior draftsman. He had been born deaf.
His father Henry Bloomfield was an artist and engraver and the family lived in Calgary before settling in New Westminster, British Columbia.
James Blomfield attracted the attention of Lord Aberdeen who paid for his art education in England and Belgium. Together with Robert McKay Fripp, South.M. Everleigh, and A. Woodroffe, in 1900 he co-founded the Arts and Crafts Association of Vancouver, which later became the Studio Club (1904) and finally the British Columbia Society of Fine Arts (1908).
Some time after the turn of the century, he moved to Washington State and later to Chicago where he became professor of design at the Chicago Academy of Fine Artist In 1918 he worked for the Christian Science Monitor as a staff writer
By 1922, he had removed to Toronto where he would spend his final years.
He died after being struck by an automobile in downtown Toronto at the age of 72. They had no children. Their remains are interred at the Hamilton (now Bayview) Mausoleum in Hamilton, Ontario.
The stained glass windows of the mausoleum were designed by Blomfield in the 1920s.
In 1982, a plaque commemorating Blomfield was unveiled at the Hamilton Mausoleum. There is a plaque on his former home at West 10th Avenue & Columbia Street, in Vancouver.
Blomfield"s name is included on the official list of potential Vancouver street names.
He was a member of the Ontario Sociery of Artists.