Early Life, Family and Training Born in 1806 in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, James Duncan began his life in a landscape that would eventually serve as the backdrop for his professional development. He received his artistic training in Ireland, cultivating the foundational skills that would later define his career as a painter and lithographer. Though the specific circumstances of his departure from his homeland remain unclear, he emigrated to Lower Canada in 1825, seeking new opportunities in a developing colony. His transition to North American life was marked by the establishment of a perm…