Art of Michigan
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Lewis T. Ives

A leading Detroit portraitist whose careful, layered paintings hang in the Michigan State Capitol.

Mrs. John J. Bagley by Lewis T. Ives
Mrs. John J. Bagley. Detroit Institute of Arts. Public domain.

Ives and his son Percy were prominent Detroit artists in the late 19th century. Together they painted more than a dozen portraits in the Michigan State Capitol.

Lewis Ives took a classical approach, building color through thin layers of oil with few visible brushstrokes. His 1886 portrait of Chief Justice James V. Campbell shows that line-focused style.