The development of British landscape painting in water-coloursFinberg, A. J. (Alexander Joseph)
History
The development of British landscape painting in water-colours
Finberg, A. J. (Alexander Joseph)
Landscape painting, British; Watercolor painting, British
Incidentally humble crofts and lowland scenery attract the artist in
Ewen Geddes, and as a painter of snow landscapes, I doubt if there is
another water-colourist who as sensitively portrays the spirit of the
wintry day. But to pick and choose from amongst the many artists whose
work entitles them to be more than briefly mentioned, regardless of
individual precedence, one may not omit W. Y. MacGregor, A.R.S.A., whose
inspiring enthusiasm as father of the famed Glasgow School of Painters
is historically honoured, and whose latter-day charcoal and water-colour
landscapes are not the least distinctive expressions of genuine art;
while amongst younger men, prominently known, are the distinguished
exponent C. H. Mackie, R.S.A., R.S.W., whose work and ideas declared in
various mediums are extremely invigorating, and J. Hamilton Mackenzie,
R.S.W., A.R.E., who, as well as a painter in oils, pastellist and
etcher, is an admirable water-colourist. To further enumerate one must
include the names of such personal landscape artists as J. Whitelaw
Hamilton, A.R.S.A., R.S.W., Archibald Kay, A.R.S.A., R.S.W., T.M. Hay,
R.S.W., Alexander MacBride, R.I., R.S.W., Stanley Cursiter, R.S.W.,
James Herald, and Stewart Orr.
But to deal more minutely with the artists who are here represented, A.
K. Brown (Plate XVI) must take precedence for his untiring services
rendered to the promotion of the delightful art of water-colour painting
in Scotland. Though born in Edinburgh in 1849, it has been in Glasgow
that the greater part of his life has been lived, and with the art
affairs of that city he has been most directly connected. His early
years were spent there as a calico-print designer, the artistic
relationship of which soon led him to the higher ideal of landscape
painting, the hills and glens as seen from a moorland road or mountain
burn being the themes that most intimately allured him; yet not that
aspect of the rugged inhumanity of the hills, but where man has trod,
and where the shepherd’s whistle may be familiarly heard. It is, too,
that sensation of friendliness felt amongst the hills that pervades his
works. Treated with a methodical tenderness, they never exhibitionally
assert themselves, but must be seen singly to convey their full
attractiveness.
In early association next to A. K. Brown would be R. W. Allan, born in
Glasgow in 1852 (Plate XV). In his young days, inspired by his father
who was a well-known lithographer in the city, he certainly had not the
usual students’ struggles to contend with, and was soon one of the few
Scottish painters in water-colour who fully realized the beauty of the
unsullied quality the medium possessed, by his broad decisive handling
in comparison with the prevalent minute finish indulged in. It is now,
however, about thirty-five years since he left his native city for
London, where he has not only become a distinguished painter in oils,
but also a prominent member of the “Old” Water-Colour Society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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