Scottish painters – my daily art display

Jessie and Aniza McGeehan

Jessie Mary McGeehan

Jessie Mary McGeehan was born to Patrick and Mary McGeehan in 1872 in Rawyards, Airdrie, about twenty miles east of Glasgow. She had four younger sisters, Annie Louise, known as Aniza, born on December 24^th 1874, Mary Catherine born March 6^th 1877, who in September 1904 entered the Order of Sisters of Notre Dame, taking her final vows in December 1914 and becoming Sister Callista. Agnes McGeehan was born April 26^th 1882 and she was the one daughter who helped the mother with the running of household affairs. Agnes was the only one of the McGeehan sisters who never went for art training. The youngest sister was Lizzie who was born on May 20^th 1883. Lizzie was eighteen when she attended the Glasgow School and remained there for for five years. Lizzie exhibited her watercolours, signing them Phil Winsloe, from 1908 to 1918, the year she died of pneumonia, just thirty-five years old. There was also two brothers Charles Vincent born in 1882 and William born in 1884. However this is the story of the two eldest sisters, Jessie and Aniza, who made names for themselves in the world of art.

Jessie and Aniza’s father was Patrick McGeehan, whose own parents had emigrated from Ireland in the 1820s. He was a grocer and spirit dealer in Black Street, Rawyards, who later became a carriage hirer. Patrick was also a talented musician and amateur artist who must have reached a high standard as his painting The Blasted Oak, Cadzow was accepted by the Royal Scottish Academy in 1879. He was very involved in the town’s community and church life. There can be no doubt that Patrick encouraged his children to progress with their own artistic ambitions.

Good Morning by Jessie McGeehan

In the March of 1888, Patrick’s eldest daughter Jessie, still only fifteen years of age, enrolled at the Glasgow School of Art. That September, two of her younger sisters, Annie Louise, known as Aniza, aged thirteen, and nine-year-old Mary Catherine joined her. One would have thought that they would have been too young to study at the Art School but when examining the attendance register of the School it can be seen that there were many other students of that age. It is thought that the deciding factor for their admission was down to them having an older sibling or family member at the school. Jessie and Aniza studied there for seven years but Mary Catherine McGeehan, according to the Art School register, only completed one year before leaving. While studying at the art college the girls won a number of prizes in local competitions and gained free studentships to the school.

The photograph above shows the female students who were attending the 1894/95 session at Glasgow School of Art Archives. Aniza McGeehan is standing immediately above the seated gentleman, Francis Newbery, who was head of the Art School, and her sister, Jessie, is the third lady on the right of Newbery.

Dinan by Jessie McGeehan

After leaving the Glasgow School of Art in 1895 Jessie continued her studies in Paris. It was around this time that Jessie’s paintings had a “flavour” of France as can be seen in her work entitled Dinan, depicting the Breton riverside town with a view of the river, bridge and buildings. Other paintings of hers depicting the French way of life were entitled Un Bon Coin and Flower Sellers, Paris which were exhibited at the Exhibition of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (RGI). From the last decade of the nineteenth century Jessie’s work, both oil and watercolours, were shown at exhibitions at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, the Royal Scottish Academy and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and in 1901 her work was shown at the Royal Academy, London.

Harvesting Plums by Jessie McGeehan (1932)

In 1897 Jessie set up her own studio at 134 Bath Street, Glasgow which for a time she shared with her sister Aniza. Shortly after the turn of the century Jessie’s artwork was being appreciated throughout Britain and abroad. In the art magazine, The Studio, there was an article about female artists and part of which was dedicated to Jessie:

“…In any notice of the lady painters of Glasgow, mention must also be made of Miss McGeehan’s bold and striking work. She is an ambitious artist whose pictures improve steadily from year to year; she evinces considerable skill in brushwork, and much that is fine and poetic in the inspiration of her work…”

On a Dutch Canal by Jessie McGeehan

During the early 1900s, Jessie spent time in Holland as many of her works, which appeared in exhibitions between 1906 to 1913, featured Dutch subjects. Her reputation as a talented young artist grew and the Scottish newspaper, the Scots Pictorial wrote about her growing reputation in the art world by 1919:

“… Jessie McGeehan – ‘One of our youngest Painters whose work has earned for her a high place among British Artists. Trained at the Glasgow School of Art, and in Paris, where she enjoyed the friendship of some of the greatest painters and sculptors of the age, she has added to this training by travel and an exhaustive study of the treasures in the great European galleries. Miss McGeehan contributes to the Royal Academy and other important art exhibitions…”

Children playing on the Beach by Jessie McGeehan

The year 1915 was the beginning of a sad time for the McGeehan family. That year their son, William who was just thirty-one years-old was reported missing presumed dead, while serving in France with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. Three years later in 1918 his brother, Charles Vincent, a joiner who was only thirty-six, died in the Western Infirmary, Glasgow and his younger sister Lizzie died of pneumonia, aged 35. One year after their deaths and after forty-eight years of marriage, Patrick’s wife Mary died at their home in Montgomerie Street, Maryhill, Glasgow. Jessie’s father Patrick died on May 3^rd 1924.

Glass mosaic in St. Augustine’s Church by Jessie McGeehan

Jessie McGeehan created a glass mosaic panel for St Augustine’s Church in Langloan, Coatbridge. She also created a glass mosaic in fourteen panels depicting the Stations of the Cross for St Aloysius Church in Garnethill as well as undertaking work for St Mary’s Church in Lancashire.

Aniza McGeehan by Jessie McGeehan (1929)

Jessie McGeehan’s 1929 oil portrait of her sister Aniza is in the North Lanarkshire Museums collections. This was one of two oil paintings exhibited in the 1929 Walker Art Gallery Autumn Exhibition. At the same exhibition Aniza exhibited a bronze bust of her sister, Jessie.

Running parallel to Jessie’s artistic life was her sister Annie Louisa (Aniza) artistic journey. Aniza was the second of eight children, born on December 24^th 1874. She was two years younger than Jessie but, like her and her younger sister Mary, she attended Glasgow Haldane Academy Society of Arts, better known simply as the Glasgow Art School. Aniza’s time at the art school was one of great success, winning a local art scholarship, and in 1895 she was joint winner of the Haldane Travelling Scholarship which came with a £50 prize and with this she was able to afford a trip to Paris in 1896, where she established her own studio and enrolled at the Colorossi Academy. She began to exhibit her work, paintings and sculptures, and in 1897 she had her sculptured bust of Lizzie Bell shown at that year’s Glasgow Fine Art Institute exhibition.

Ferry on the River Dordogne by Jessie McGeehan

Around this time, her father sold his licenced grocery business in Coatbridge and moved to Glasgow. Aniza left Paris and returned home to Glasgow where she shared a studio at 134 Bath Street with her sister, Jessie. She had her portrait of school inspector Dr Smith shown at two exhibitions in 1899. The art critics stating that the portrait was one that evoked “masculine strength” which was in complete contrast to her sculpture work, a bust of Mrs D. Campbell Rowat, which was hailed by the critics as “delicate and refined”.

A Day at the Dunes by Jessie McGeehan

Towards the late 1890s, Aniza received the commission for ten sculptures for Pettigrew and Stephens’ Store, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow and according to her family she barely had time to finish the commission before her marriage in St Aloysius Church, Garnethill on June 12th 1900 to Vincent Murphy, a timber merchant from Liverpool. The service was conducted by her uncle, Father Charles Brown. Clearly Aniza’s talent had been recognized by many of the leading figures in the Glasgow Art World.

Pettigrew and Stephens’ Store, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow .

Sadly, this magnificent building, which encompassed many of the outstanding talents in Glasgow, was demolished in 1974. Fortunately, Roger Guthrie, a leading member of the Glasgow conservation movement,managed to save two of Aniza’s sculptures. One was gifted to The Hunterian Museum and the other to the Scottish Amicable Building Society in Stirling. Aniza moved to Waterloo Park in Liverpool which at the time had a number of Scottish families living there. Vincent and Aniza went on to have four children, but only John Vincernt and Marie Louise (Marielle) survived childbirth. Despite the work involved in raising a family she continued with her sculpture work and in 1903 had one her bronze works, Monsignor Nugent, exhibited at the Royal Academy, London.

Learning to Walk by Jessie McGeehan

In the mid-1930s, Jessie had moved to 152a Renfrew Street, which was to remain her studio and home for the rest of her life.

Vincent and Aniza flanked by their son John Vincent and their daughter Mariella

Sadly, Aniza’s daughter Marielle died of pneumonia, when she was only nineteen years of age. Following her marriage Aniza continued to exhibit and take commission work, but soon this became too much due to family commitments resulting in her exhibiting less frequently than Jessie.

Annie Louise (Anzia) McGeehan

Anzia McGeehan died in September 2nd 1962, aged 87.

Jessie McGeehan died in Glasgow in 1950, aged 78

Information for this blog came from the usual internet sources plus:

The Parish of St Augustine Coatbridge website – A Family of Artists.

The Glasgow School of Art

The Artistically Talented Walton Family

My blog today is about a family of artists, the Walton family, a veritable artistic dynasty. The head of the family was Edward Arthur Walton, best known as, simply, E.A.Walton. Walton was born on April 15^th, 1860 in Barrhead, a small town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, thirteen kilometres (8 miles) southwest of Glasgow city centre.

The Artist’s Mother, Elizabeth Balfour Nicolson, Mrs Jackson Walton by Edward Walton (1885)

Edward Walton was one of twelve children of Jackson Walton and his wife Elizabeth Balfour née Nicholson. Jackson was a Manchester commission agent and a skilled amateur painter and photographer. His brother was George Henry Walton, a noted architect, furniture designer and stained glass designer, who worked with Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a renowned Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and artist.

Glassware painted by Helen Walton (1910)

Edward’s sisters, Helen and Constance were also talented artists. Helen Walton was best known for her decorative work in ceramics and glass and as one of the eldest children, Helen became an artistic mentor to her siblings including her brother, Edward Arthur, who was ten years her junior.

Still Life with Roses by Constance Walton

Constance Walton was a much-admired botanical painter. She trained at Glasgow School of Art and became a member of the group known as the Glasgow Girls. This group of women artists and designers pursued different styles and worked in a range of art forms. Many of the women created their own discreet groups while others chose to work alone and although the name of the group was coined by William Buchanan in an essay, he contributed to the catalogue for a Glasgow Boys exhibition held in 1968, many of the women lived and worked outside Glasgow. These female artists became prominent in the late nineteenth century, thanks to the enlightened attitude of Francis Newbery, a painter and art educationist, best known when he was director of the Glasgow School of Art between 1885 and 1917. who set out to enrol men and women equally.

Daydreams by Constance Walton(c.1895)

Day Dreams by Constance Walton is a large watercolour depicting a young girl sitting on steps looking distractedly into the distance. Constance Walton’s figurative paintings are quite rare as after her marriage in 1886 she concentrated on her flower and botanical paintings. This depiction could have been influenced by her brother, Edward’s work of the same name which he completed in 1885.

A Daydream by Edward Walton (1885)

Helen and Constance’s brother Edward Arthur Walton was probably the best-known artist of all the siblings

Self portrait by Edward Walton

After completing school and wanting to concentrate on his art he travelled to Germany where he spent two winters at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art before returning to Scotland and enrolling at the Glasgow School of Art in 1878.

Joseph Crawhall by Edward Walton (1884)

At the Glasgow School of Art he became good friends with fellow aspiring painters, James Guthrie and Joseph Crawhall whose sister married Edward’s brother. As we have often seen in various blogs, young artists training at State Academies often became disillusioned and disheartened by the academic training which concentrated on historical painting and high levels of finish. It was for this reason that in many countries the young artists rebelled and set about working to their own agenda. In the case of Edmund Walton and his friends they formed a loose group which became known as the Glasgow Boys who decided that their focus should be on realistic depictions, often of rural subjects, depictions that would illustrate real life, the hard-bitten and candid view of living.

The Harbour Scene, St Ives by Edward Walton

The Glasgow Boys group gained inspiration from the progress in landscape painting in France and sought to take greater notice on the natural effects of light in the open air when setting about painting Scottish rural scenes. The group also took to the French style of en plein air painting when, whilst outdoors, they would paint directly onto the canvas. The painter who had the greatest influence on this group of artists was the French realist painter, Jules Bastien-Lepage whose down-to-earth depictions focused on the real, often, impoverished life that surrounded his village. For all Edmund Walton learnt about art in Dusseldorf and the Glasgow School of Art, nothing compared to the knowledge he gained working alongside his fellow “boys”.

Victoria Road Helensburg by Edward Walton

In 1883, Edward Walton joined James Guthrie, at Cockburnspath, Berwickshire where he honed his talent as a painter in both oil and watercolour in the open air. He also spent time in Helensburgh, an affluent coastal town on the north side of the Firth of Clyde where he completed a series of watercolours depicting the well-dressed affluent residents of this prosperous suburb.

Helensburgh by Edward Walton

His skill as a watercolourist resulted in him being accepted as a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1885 and shortly after he became a member of the New English Art Club. In 1894, when he was thirty-four, he moved to London living in Kensington and later Chelsea, where his neighbour and good friend James Whistler lived. Other artistic neighbours were the Irish-born painter John Lavery and Philip Wilson Steer, a British painter of landscapes, seascapes plus portraits and figure studies. Steer was also an influential art teacher and a leading figure in the Impressionist movement in Britain.

Edward Arthur Walton Artist, with his Fiancée Helen Law or Henderson as Hokusai and the Butterfly by Sir John Lavery (1889)

Around 1889 Edward Walton met Helen Law. Love followed and the pair got engaged. To celebrate their engagement the couple attended the Grand Costume Ball, organised by the Glasgow Art Club November 29th 1889. Edward dressed as the Japanese printmaker Hokusai, (an exhibition of his work was on show in Glasgow at the time) while his fiancée’s costume represents the painter Whistler’s signature in the shape of a butterfly. Photographer James Craig Annan took a photograph of the couple. Artist and the couple’s friend, the artist, John Lavery, sketched this portrait of Edward and Helen on the night and presented it to them as a gift for their engagement, which they had announced earlier that evening.

Eric Robertson

Edward and Helen married and went on to have four children, the eldest of whom was their daughter Cecile who was born on March 29th 1891. In 1894, Edward Walton, his wife and two-year-old Cecile moved from Scotland to London. In the summer the Walton family travelled to Suffolk where they rented the Old Vicarage at Wenhaston, which was a few miles from Walberswick, a village on the Suffolk coast, where Frank and Jessie Newbery lived and the two families painted together in the summer. Cecile Walton and Newbery’s daughter Mary became close friends and later both developed strong links with Galloway area of Scotland. The Walton family returned to Scotland in 1904 and took up residence in Edinburgh where Cecile enrolled at the Edinburgh College of Art.

Cecile Walton by Eric Robertson (1922)

She also had private tuition from the Symbolist painter, John Duncan who taught her to appreciate Florentine art of the Renaissance and it was whilst at John Duncan’s house that she met another painter, Eric Robertson. Cecile’s parents were not enamoured with her friendship with Robertson as he had a reputation of being a heavy drinker and a philanderer but despite her parents’ views Cecile and Eric Robertson married in 1914 and their first child, Gavril, was born in February 1915.

Romance by Cecile Walton (1920)

Cecile and Eric’s second child, another son, Edward, was born in December 1919 and it was shortly after his birth that Cecile started what was to be one of her most famous paintings, Romance. Cecile Walton depicts herself holding up her new-born son, Edward, for intense scrutiny, whilst her elder boy, Gavril, clutches his gollywog doll. Although nowadays the toy is recognised as a racist caricature, they were commonplace in British childhoods until the 1960s. The depiction of mother and baby is usually associated with the Madonna and Child but in Cecile’s painting, the depiction knowingly echoes a well-known impressionist image of a sex worker; Olympia as portrayed by Edouard Manet, and this implies a more troubled attitude to motherhood. The inclusion of carefully placed details such as petals on the floor, and the apple, add to the sense of unease. In the painting we see Cecile, depicted lying half naked in bed holding her new baby son. At the foot of the bed, we see her first-born child Gavril looking on. In an article in the Woman’s Art Journal, Frances Fowle, art historian and curator comments on the painting:

“…The title Romance seems inappropriate and the picture itself has a disconnected feel: the figures seem strangely dislocated, the scene has an almost surreal clarity, and the eye is arrested by the disagreeable greenish hue of the wall. The picture poses questions; even the objects on the table and the discarded rose on the floor invite interpretation. The artist lies stretched out on the bed, naked except for a curious yellow hat and towel wrapped around her hips…”

The thorns on the stem of the rose symbolise the suffering of the virgin and this may, in this case, allude to the suffering of the woman during childbirth. The crushed rose seen on the floor next to the bed is thought to symbolise Cecile’s failing marriage brought on by her husband’s unacceptable habits and his surrender to the demon alcohol. Cecile was not in a good place at this time having to endure her husband’s drunkenness and infidelity. Marriage and subsequent children had also deprived Cecile of her personal freedom and curbed her artistic output, similar to what happened to her mother once she married Edward Walton. The painting was exhibited at the second Edinburgh Group Exhibition in 1920.

The Favourite Dress by Cecile Walton

Cecile’s marriage to Eric Robertson ended in 1923 due to his unacceptable behaviour and Cecile, along with her two sons, moved out of the family home and went to live with her friend Dorothy Johnstone. Her divorce was finalised in 1927. In 1924 Dorothy and Cecile staged a joint exhibition of their work. However since the ending of her marriage and subsequent divorce Cecile’s artistic output decreased and her artistic career began to fail.

Deserted Ferry by Cecile Walton (1949)

Eric Robertson’s artistic career also broke down after his separation from Cecile, and he eventually capitulated to alcohol. In 1923, following the failure of his marriage he moved to Liverpool and by the early 1930s, he was largely forgotten as a painter. Cecile Walton remarried in November 1936. Her second husband was to Gordon Gildard, a BBC producer, and she moved to Glasgow to be with him. Unfortunately, their marriage was short-lived and the couple divorced in 1945. Cecile went to live the rest of her life in the vibrant fishing port and artists’ town of Kirkcudbright, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

Cecile Walton died in Edinburgh on April 23^rd 1956, aged 65.

William McTaggart. Part 1. The son of a Scottish crofter.

My featured artist today, William McTaggart, was born in the rural hamlet of Aros, in the parish of Campbeltown, a Scottish town on the Kintyre Peninsula, on October 25^th, 1835. He was born into a family of crofters. He was one of nine children of Dugald and Barbara Brodie McTaggart (née Brolachan). His father was a farm labourer and it was said that young William would fashion models from the clay which was prevalent in the ground around the farm. In 1847 his parents arranged for him to become an apprentice to Doctor Buchanan, an apothecary in Campbeltown. During his apprenticeship he would wile away his spare time sketching and painting, often they would be portraits of the shop’s customers. Doctor Buchanan must have been impressed by his hard work and his love of art as in 1852, he arranged for William to go to Glasgow and gave him a letter of introduction to the established Scottish portrait artist Daniel MacNee.

A Life Study of a Seated Male Model by William McTaggart (c.1850’s)

MacNee was also impressed by William McTaggart and began to give him some lessons in artistic techniques. He advised the young man to go to Edinburgh and seek a formal art education. William took the advice, much to the consternation of his father, and enrolled as a student at the Trustees’ Academy, an establishment which dated back to 1760 and which, in 1907 became the Edinburgh College of Art. William McTaggart spent seven years at this Edinburgh art school and studied under Robert Scott Lauder, the Scottish Historical painter. It was just what young McTaggart needed. Here he had found a sense of enthusiasm towards art rather than a cynicism towards the subject which he had encountered at home. No longer where his artistic aspirations looked upon as being foolish. He was now not alone when it came to his love of art and had the added advantage of having a skilled tutor to guide him. This change of environment acted as a stimulus for his enthusiastic nature. His success at the Academy was down to his artistic talent and his strength of character.

Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857

At the Trustees Academy he won various awards including first prizes for both painting life models and painting antique casts. During his long stay he also attended some of the anatomy classes of John Goodsir at Edinburgh University. In 1857, along with Paul Chalmers, a fellow Trustees’ Academy student who became a well-known portrait painter, William travelled down to Manchester to visit the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition which comprised over 16,000 works split into various categories, such as Pictures by Ancient Masters, Pictures by Modern Masters, British Portraits and Miniatures, Water Colour Drawings, Sketches and Original Drawings (Ancient), Engravings, Illustrations of Photography, Works of Oriental Art, Varied Objects of Oriental Art, and Sculpture. It was a monumental exhibition remains and believed to be the largest art exhibition ever to be held in the with over 16,000 works on display.

In numerous biographies of artists who studied in Paris they often travelled to Brittany during their summer vacations but for aspiring Scottish artists studying in their homeland they would often spend their summer holidays across the Irish Sea in Ireland. Like their French counterparts, whilst enjoying their summer vacation they would paint and try and sell their artwork before returning back home to the new term which had to be paid for. William McTaggart’s initial painting were portraits and in 1855 he had his first painting, a watercolour portrait of two ladies, unveiled at an Edinburgh exhibition, although previously he had some of his works shown at the Royal Hibernian Society.

The Past and the Present, by William McTaggart (c.1860)

One of McTaggart’s early paintings, completed around 1860, was The Past and The Present depicting the cheery purity of young children and was probably influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite painters who favoured this type of subject. McTaggart received the commission for this work from the Glaswegian art collector Robert Craig. The painting depicts a group of five children of varying age playing innocently in the graveyard of the ruined Kilchousland church on a sunny afternoon. They show no fear with regards the area which holds the remains of those who have passed away. The depiction of their innocence negates any thoughts that this is a vanitas painting and yet the title would seem to highlight the transience of life.

After a three-year engagement, William McTaggart married Mary Holmes in Glasgow on June 9^th 1863. They would go on to have six children. He and his young wife went to Fairlie, a picturesque village which backed on to green pastoral hills which surrounded beautiful wooded glens, on the Ayrshire coast a few miles from Largs. From Fairlie the couple went to London on a brief visit about the end of July, when Mrs. McTaggart met some of her husband’s early friends, and they visited the Royal Academy Exhibition. However, for William McTaggart, London was not for him and the couple returned to live in Edinburgh. Soon his family increased and during the following summers he would take his wife and children on family holidays by the sea on the East coast of Scotland, visiting places such as Carnoustie and Broughty Ferry, where he painted many of the local scenes and soon gathered a number of commissions from the local people

Through Wind and Rain by Wiliam McTaggart (1875)

In 1870, McTaggart and his family went on holiday to the small village of Kilkerran, a few miles south of Campbeltown, and close to his birthplace. It was a working holiday as William loved to paint. From that year on, William and his family would return to Kintyre visiting Machrihanish, Tarbert, Carradale or Southend. He was a prolific painter and his output was tremendous. His paintings were much sought after and commanded high prices. It is believed at that time he was probably the best open-air painter in Britain.

The Village, White House by William McTaggart (1875)

In 1875 McTaggart completed his painting The Village, Whitehouse. It was exhibited in the London Royal Academy under the title Twas Autumn and Sunshine arose on the Way. It was one of many McTaggart paintings which depicted the picturesque small village. It was a tiring journey for the artist to get to Whitehouse as he had to go to Campbeltown and then catch the Campbeltown-Tarbert coach and to achieve all this he had to leave his holiday home at 5.a.m. It was the last time he exhibited at the Royal Academy as he reasoned that he preferred to be first in his own country rather than be second in any other.

As a student at the Trustees’ Academy, William McTaggart was awarded several prizes. He also began to exhibit his work at the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy and in 1870 applied to become a full Academician. To achieve this, he had to pass an interview and submit a diploma piece. McTaggart’s diploma piece was his 1869 painting entitled Dora. The painting illustrates a scene from Tennyson’s 1835 poem of the same name. Dora, the heroine of the poem, waits in the field for the old farmer to acknowledge his grandchild beneath a blaze of summer sunshine. Dora’s ploy here is to take off the boy’s sun-hat and put a little chain of wildflowers around his head instead, to make him look appealing (although in the poem itself, she puts the flowers round his hat). The grandfather can be seen approaching in the distance. Fortunately, in the end, the child does bring his grandfather round.

The poem reads:

“…But when the morrow came, she rose and took

The child once more, and sat upon the mound;

And made a little wreath of all the flowers

That grew about, and tied it round his hat

To make him pleasing in her uncle’s eye…”

William McTaggart was made an Academician in 1870. The painting is part of the Scottish National Gallery and is regarded as one of the gems among the Scottish pictures.

Summer Breezes by William McTaggart (1881)

Most of his early works featured figure painting with him concentrating on depictions of children. A fine example of this early work was McTaggart’s 1881 painting entitled Summer Breezes. The painting depicts the two daughters of Sir. Thomas McCall Anderson who was a noted and pioneering dermatologist at the Glasgow Western Infirmary and later Regius Professor of Medicine. The background for the picture was painted from sketches made by McTaggart at Machrihanish in August 1880. His biographer John Craw summed up the painting in his 1917 book William McTaggart R.S.A., V.P.R.S.W., A Biography and an Appreciation. He wrote:

“…Than the last there is, indeed, nothing more exquisite in the fascinating kind of child portraiture he had made peculiarly his own. Here the two little daughters of Sir T. McCall Anderson, playing barefoot upon the sunlit shore, are grouped beside a great rock. One child, dressed in pale blue and pink, leans against the tawny and golden ridge upon which her smaller white-pinafored sister is perched, and their curly heads come together as they look with delight and wonder at a shell held by the other girl. Beside them, but neglected for the new-found treasure, a rough-haired terrier turns his attention seawards, where not far off a cobble at the salmon nets bobs buoyantly upon the waves, which heave divinely blue and free beneath a brilliant summer sky. Delightful as story, the pictorial treatment is no less charming. The design is happy and pervaded by a rare sense of beauty, the handling and drawing easy, graceful, suggestive, the colour lovely on its high-pitched but full harmony, the whole effect remarkable not only for vividness of lighting but for silvery clearness of tone…”

………………to be continued.

The Scottish Colourists, Part 3 – John Duncan Fergusson

Today I am looking at the third member of the Scottish Colourist group and possibly the most well-known, John Duncan Fergusson, who was born in March 1874 in Leith, a town which is often known as the port of Edinburgh. He was the eldest of four children of John Fergusson, a spirit merchant and Christina, his mother. He attended the Royal High School, Edinburgh and Blair Lodge School in Linlithgow. Following this, in 1892, Fergusson attended the Edinburgh University Medical School to study medicine with the intention of becoming a naval surgeon. However his lack of application to his studies resulted in him leaving after just two years, at which time, he decided on a complete volte-face and decided to study art at the city’s Trustees Academy School of Art. Once again, Fergusson did not last long studying at this academy for he left stating that he found it too difficult to reconcile what he considered to be, their old fashioned and inflexible teaching methods and their rigid curriculum which had been set in stone. He left the art school and decided to set himself up in his own studio in Picardy Place, Edinburgh and simply teach himself how to paint.

Fergusson knew of the work of the Glasgow Boys and decided to do as they had done, go and study art in Paris which was, at the time, looked upon as the art capital of the world. In 1895, aged twenty, he enrolled in the life-classes at Académie Colarossi and revelled in the lifestyle of his fellow artists and the whole Paris café society scene. Fergusson enthusiastically adopted the lifestyle of a Bohemian artist, mixing with the likes of Picasso and Matisse and he could often be seen frequenting the legendary cafés of the time, such as, Le Pre-Catalan Restaurant, the Cage Harcourt and the La Closerie des Lilas and it was in these places, surrounded by his artist acquaintances that he drew so much of his inspiration. He easily settled into this unrestrictive café society of the Left Bank. He was surrounded by the work of the Impressionists and would visit the public and private galleries such as Salle Caillebotte at the Musée du Luxembourg, where their works were on display. Fergusson loved the French capital and for the next ten years spent his summers in Paris and the rest of the time in Edinburgh, where he had established a close productive working relationship with fellow Scottish Colourist, Samuel Peploe. In 1897 Fergusson exhibited some of his work at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and the following year, spent time in central France, painting at the artists’ colony of Grez-sur-Loing, a small commune seventy kilometres south of Paris. This River Loing setting often featured in the works of Alfred Sisley. In 1899 Fergusson decided to go to Morocco and follow in the footsteps of Arthur Melville, the Scottish painter, who was famed for his Orientalist works, and who is now looked upon as being one of the most powerful influences in the contemporary art of his day.

Mademoiselle Dryden by J.D.Fergusson (1908)

It was during a painting trip at the seaside resort of Paris-Plage, in the summer of 1907 that Fergusson met two American ladies, Anne Estelle Rice and Elizabeth Dryden. Elizabeth Dryden was an American writer and critic who had been sent to Paris in 1905 by her employer, the Philadelphia department store magnate, Lewis Rodman Wanamaker, to write fashion reviews for his Philadelphia department store trade magazine. These reviews would then be illustrated by her friend Anne Estelle Rice, who was a sculptor and artist and who had worked as an illustrator on a number of magazines. Both women featured in a number of paintings by Fergusson and he became great friends with them and Anne Estelle Rice later became Fergusson’s mistress. In his 1908 painting of Elizabeth Dryden entitled Mademoiselle Dryden, Fergusson has depicted her clad not in the latest fashion but wearing a simple red scarf to keep out the chill with a painter’s smock worn loosely around her shoulders.

After his fully clothed portraits of Rice and Dryden it is quipped that from then on all his sitters had to remove their clothes and be in a state of undress! In 1910, the English writer and critic, John Middleton Murray visited Fergusson’s Edinburgh studio. He was about to launch a new literary, arts and critical review magazine.

Murray wanted to name the magazine after one of Fergusson’s paintings and have a drawing of it on the front cover. Fergusson’s painting of a female nude was entitled Rhythm and that became the magazine’s title. The cover of the magazine was elephant grey with Fergusson’s strong image of a naked woman sitting under a tree with an apple in her hand printed on it in black ink. Fergusson became its art editor and through his many contacts in the art world was able to persuade artists such as Derrain, Picasso, and Delauny to provide illustrations for the magazine. Anne Estelle Rice was also a regular contributor to the periodical.

Fergusson loved life in France and all the opportunities it afforded him to paint. In the summers Fergusson would go on holiday and would often meet up with Peploe and his family in Brittany or Cassis in the south of France and for a short time Fergusson lived at Cap d’Antibes.

On his return to Paris he accepted the position as teacher at the Académie de la Palette and set up his studio in Montparnasse. Fergusson was very happy with life at this time. His long term partner Margaret Morris, whom he met in 1913, quoted Fergusson’s words describing his satisfaction with his Montparnasse studio and life in general in her 1974 book, The Art of J.D.Fergusson:

“… [it was] comfortable, modern and healthy. My concierge most sympathetic. Life was as it should be and I was very happy. The Dome, so to speak, round the corner; L’Avenue quite near; the Concert Rouge not far away – I was very much interested in music; the Luxembourg Gardens to sketch in; Colarossi’s class if I wanted to work from the model. In short everything a young painter could want…”

Fergusson had met the dancer, choreographer, Margaret Morris in 1913. She is now recognised for her pioneering work in modern dance. She ran a dance school in London and that year had taken her dance troupe to Paris to dance at the Marigny Theatre on the Champs Elysees. Fergusson and Morris later married and he became Art Director of all her MMM (Margaret Morris Movement) schools. Fergusson and Morris were to remain together for almost fifty years. The two built up a collection of friends from the literary greats of the time such as the novelist and playwright John Galsworthy, the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, the American ex-pat poet, Ezra Pound and the English writer and painter Wyndham Lewis. Fergusson now had two homes and two distinct lives. He had his base in Paris and the painting trips to the south of the country and he had the chance to stay with friends back in Britain, whether it was Samuel Peploe and his family in Edinburgh or his new friend Margaret Morris in London.

Christmas Time in the South of France by J.D.Fergusson (1922)

With the outbreak of the First World War he returned to Britain and, for the next four years, had to suffer the financial hardship brought about by the lack of sales of his work during the period of conflict. After the war, he set up his own studio in London and this remained his base for the next ten years. He exhibited his work on a regular basis and in 1928 he had four major exhibitions: in Chicago, London, Glasgow and New York. In 1929, he along with Margaret Morris, returned to his beloved France and he set up his studio near the Parc de Montsouris, in Paris, but always in the summers they made the trek south to live at Cap d’Antibes. In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, Fergusson and Morris return to Britain and set up home in Glasgow and it was here that Fergusson spent the last years of his life.

Throughout his life Fergusson had rebelled against formal academic art and he now found himself a slightly beleaguered figure, who was neither a part of the academic fold nor was he welcomed by the Royal Scottish Academy. Fergusson and his wife, Margaret Morris were leading lights in the Glasgow artistic scene and Fergusson did have his followers as many much younger artists were drawn to him and his art. In 1940, he decided to form the New Art Club, and out of this emerged the New Scottish Group of painters of which he was the first president.

John Duncan Fergusson died in Glasgow in 1961, aged 87. Throughout his life, whether he lived and worked in Paris, Antibes, London or Glasgow, his art was infused by his rebellious and independent nature. He always maintained his belief in freedom of expression and his fervent commitment to a modern, non-academic art world. He was a lover of colour which was summed up by a quote from him, recorded in William MacLellan’s 1943 book entitled J. D. Fergusson, Modem Scottish Painting. Fergusson was quoted as saying:

“…Everyone in Scotland should refuse to have anything to do with black or dirty and dingy colours, and insist on clean colours in everything. I remember when I was young any colour was considered a sign of vulgarity. Greys and blacks were the only colours for people of taste and refinement. Good pictures had to be black, grey, brown or drab. Well! let’s forget it, and insist on things in Scotland being of colour that makes for and associates itself with light, hopefulness, health and happiness…”

The Scottish Colourists – Part 1, S.J.Peploe

It has often been the case that artists have been compartmentalised into groups which is then given an elaborate name. The name is, more often or not, one which has not been made up by them but has come from an external source. We know that Monet, Renoir, Degas and Sisley, to name just a few, did not sit around a French café table and come up with the name Impressionists for their group. In fact the name Impressionists came from Louis Leroy, the art critic, journalist and some time contributor to the illustrated Parisian newspaper, Le Charivari. In 1874, he had gone along to an exhibition of works by a group of artists which was being held at the photographer Nadar’s studio in the French capital. The group of painters called themselves the Société anonyme des peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs, (The Anonymous society of painters, sculptors and engravers). One of the paintings being exhibited was Claude Monet’s 1872 work entitled Impression: Soleil levant (Impression: Sunrise). The title of Leroy’s review, in the April 27^th edition of le Charivari, Exhibition of Impressionists, was taken directly from the title of Monet’s work. Leroy’s review took the form of a fictional dialogue between two people who were viewing the exhibits with a measure of cynicism and disbelief at what they saw. Commenting on Monet’s work one said:

“…Impression I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it — and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape…”

Another example of this naming of a group of artists by somebody from outside the circle was that of the Fauves The Fauves were a small group of artists who in the early 1900’s burst onto the French art scene with their wild, vibrant style that shocked their critics. The name of the group was not thought up by the artists of the group such as Matisse, Derrain or Vlaminck but the term came from the influential but acerbic French art critic, Louis Vauxcelles, who first gave the group of painters the name les Fauves (the wild beasts). The name came from a comment he made when he went to see the 1905 Salon d’Automne exhibition. Their paintings were on display in the same room as a classical sculpture by Donatello. Vauxcelles decried their offerings in comparison to the classical sculpture by saying that the sculpture was Donatello parmi les fauves (Donatello amongst wild beasts).

In my next couple of blogs I am going to look at the works of four Scottish painters who were influenced by the French Impressionists and Fauvists and who exhibited their works in the early part of the twentieth century. It was not until almost twenty years later, in 1948, that the four painters were grouped together under the name “The Scottish Colourists” by the director of the Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow, Dr. Tom Honeyman, by which time three of the four painters were dead. The four artists, often referred to by just the initials of their Christian names and their surnames, were Francis Campbell Boileau (F.C.B.) Cadell, Samuel John (S.J.) Peploe, John Duncan (J.D.) Fergusson and George Leslie (G.L.) Hunter. This group of painters took up the mantle of Scottish art previously held by the group of Scottish painters, known as the Glasgow Boys, in the last decade of the nineteenth century.

S.J. Peploe, the eldest of the four, was born in Edinburgh in 1871. He was the son of Robert Luff Peploe, an assistant secretary of the Commercial Bank of Scotland and his second wife, Anne. He was educated at the Collegiate School in Edinburgh. He was undecided as to what future path he should take and after finishing at school. At one time he thought a military career was the career he wanted. Then he considered a career in the church and ended up with a position as an apprentice in the Edinburgh legal firm of Scott & Glover. He was unhappy in that work and decided to become an artist and in 1891 enrols at the Edinburgh School of Art. Three years later Peploe heads for Paris to broaden his artistic education, where he lodges with another Scottish artist who was studying in Paris, the Aberdeen–born painter, Robert Brough who had been a fellow student with Peploe in Edinburgh. In 1894 Peploe begins his studies at L’Académie Julian under the French Academic painter, William Bouguereau and at L’Académie Colarossi. In 1895 Peploe visited Holland and is fascinated by the works of Frans Hals and brought back a number of reproductions of the Dutch artist’s works which he puts on the walls of his lodgings.

The Green Blouse by Samuel Peploe (c. 1904)

One of Peploe’s works which shows the influence of Frans Hals was a painting Peploe completed around 1904 entitled The Green Blouse. The sitter for this portrait was Jeannie Blyth, a gypsy flower seller. Peploe had used this teenager on a number of occasions. It is thought that her dark colouring and total “at ease” attitude, as a sitter, made her the perfect model.

In 1895 Peploe returns to Scotland and takes up lodgings there and acquires a studio in Edinburgh. He enrols in the Royal Scottish Academy life classes and went on to be awarded the Maclaine Watters medal for winning the RSA Art Prize. The following year he exhibits work at both the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. Besides these two great artistic establishments there were other chances for up-and-coming new artists to exhibit their works. One such place was the private gallery of the Edinburgh fine art dealers, Aitken Dott & Son who afforded Peploe his first solo exhibition in 1903. Later, the other three Scottish Colourists would have solo exhibitions at this establishment. In the summer of 1905 Peploe and fellow Scottish Colourist, Fergusson travel to Brittany on a painting trip and carry on their artistic tour taking in the sights of Dieppe, Paris and Paris-Plage.

It was around this time that Peploe started to paint still-lifes. Peploe spent large amount time in the preparation for his still-life works even though the subject matter itself was not complicated. His brother in law Frederick Porter wrote about Peploe’s obsession with his detailed preliminaries before starting painting and his struggle for perfection. He wrote:

“… All his still lifes were carefully arranged and considered before he put them on canvas. When this was done – it often took several days to accomplish – he seemed to have absorbed everything necessary for transmitting them to canvas. The result was a canvas covered without any apparent effort. If a certain touch was wrong it was soon obliterated by the palette knife. The whole canvas had to be finished in one painting so as to preserve complete continuity. If, in his judgement, it was not right then the whole painting was scrapped and painted again…”

The Lobster was one of Peploe’s still life paintings which he completed around 1903 and in this work there is a sense of drama in the way he has contrasted the strongly coloured objects against a dark background. Look at the unusual way Peploe has included his vertical signature in the right hand side of the painting. In some ways it looks like a vertical column of Japanese script and the colour scheme used, red, yellow and black as well as the sheen of the work affords it an effect which is very like the Japanese lacquer-work. A few blogs ago, I talked about how all things Japanese had become very popular in the late nineteenth century in Europe. This “craze” known as Japonisme was also becoming popular in Britain, and due to the Japonisme works of Whistler, it was influencing many artists including painters from Scotland, such as the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists.

In 1910 Peploe married Margaret Makay and the couple moved to Paris. His son Willy was born that year. He remained in France and carries on with his painting. In June 1912 Peploe moves his family from Paris and takes up residence in Edinburgh and in 1914 his second son, Denis is born. In 1917 after a number of solo exhibitions he is elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and ten years later is elected as a member of the Royal Scottish Academy. In 1928 he has an exhibition in New York at the Kraushaar Galleries. In 1933, as well as continuing with his own painting, he taught the advanced life-class students at Edinburgh College.

Samuel John (S.J.) Peploe died in October 1935, aged 64.

In my next blog I will look at the life of Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell, another of the Scottish Colourists.