GLASGOW SCHOOL G L A S b O W SCHOOL OF PAINTING BY DAVID MARTIN WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY FRANCIS H. NEWBERY HEADMASTER OF THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1897 ■m- PREFACE As this volume (which is the first of a projected series deahng with modern schools of painting) has been written by one Glasgow painter and prefaced by another, by their own wish no examples of the work of either are included herein. It need hardly be said that the term "school" in the title has no reference to any educational establishment, but is used in the sense recognised by historians of Art. That Continental galleries of the first rank for some time past have been purchasing paintings by members ot the Glasgow School, to add to their permanent col- lections, IS clear evidence that its importance is fully recognised by foreign experts, even if it is not as well known to the British public as its merits deserve The illustrations, selected by Mr David Martin, and photographed direct from the original paintings by the kind permission of their owners, have been reproduced by Messrs Angerer & Goschl of Vienna CONTENTS INTRODUCTION, BY FRANCIS H. NEWBERY D. Y. CAMERON, R.E. J. E. CHRISTIE JOSEPH CRAWHALL, JUN T. MILLIE DOW, R.S.W. DAVID GAULD JAMES GUTHRIE, R.S.A. J. WHITELAW HAMILTON, R.S.W GEORGE HENRY, A. R.S.A E. A. HORNEL WILLIAM KENNEDY JOHN LAVERY, R.S.A. W. Y. MACGREGOR, R.S.W. HARRINGTON MANN T. CORSAN MORTON STUART PARK JAMES PATERSON, A. R.S.A. GEORGE PIRIE ALEXANDER ROCHE, A. R.S.A R. MACAULAY STEVENSON GROSVENOR THOMAS, R.S.W. E. A. WALTON, A.R.S.A. . OTHER PAINTERS OF THE GLASGOW SCHOOL POSTSCRIPT LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS D. Y. CAMERON THE WHITE BUTTERFLY . THE BRIDE .... PORTRAIT .... J. E. CHRISTIE the red fisherman Hallowe'en .... the wheel of fortune J. CRAWHALL, JUN. THE BARB ... THE BULL FIGHT T. MILLIE DOW THE HERALD OF WINTER ROSES ..... THE KELPIE .... DAVID GAULD PORTRAIT .... CHANGING PASTURES JAMES GUTHRIE PORTRAIT OF MISS HAMILTON PORTRAIT OF MRS MACLEHOSE MIDSUMMER .... J. WHITELAW HAMILTON VENICE ...... LANDSCAPE . . . . , GEORGE HENRY THE MUSHROOM GATHERER "a jap" • . . . . THE CHILDREN OF T. G. ARTHUR, ESQ. . GOLDFISH ... E. A. HORNEL GEISHA ...... THE KITE FLYERS ■ . . . WILLIAM KENNEDY THE HARVEST MOON . . . . HOMEWARDS . . . . . JOHN LAVERY PORTRAIT R. B. CUNNINGHAM GRAHAME, ESQ. . LADY IN BLACK ..... PORTRAIT IX b GLASGOW SCHOOL WILLIAM MACBRIDE .^^^^ p^^^ PASTORAL ....... 72 W. Y. MACGREGOR THE TOWERS OF YORK ...... 42 THE CARSE OF LECROPT ...... 42 WINTER LANDSCAPE ...... 44 THE QUARRY ....... 44 HARRINGTON MANN a song of spring ...... 46 portrait ....... 46 woman's work ....... 48 T. CORSAN MORTON PAST AND PRESENT ...... 50 JOHN REID MURRAY AUTUMN ....... 70 STUART PARK ROSES ........ 52 A GIPSY MAID ....... 52 JAMES PATERSON MORTON CASTLE ....... 54 SOLWAY SANDS ....... 54 NAMELESS HILLS ....... 54 GEORGE PIRIE FOXHOUNDS ....... 56 HEN AND CHICKENS ...... 56 ALEXANDER ROCHE LADY REID ....... 58 PORTRAIT OF MRS ROBERTS ..... 58 SPRINGTIME ....... 60 FISHERS ........ 60 H. SPENCE AUTUMN LANDSCAPE ...... 72 R. MACAULAY STEVENSON OCTOUER EVENING ...... 62 CREPUSCULE ....... 62 "flow GENTLY, SWEET AFTON " .... 64 IN THE GLOAMING ...... 64 GROSVENOR THOMAS EVENING ....... 66 WHITE HOUSE ON THE HILL ..... 66 E. A. WALTON HEAD OF A GIRL ...... 68 X INTRODUCTION BY FRANCIS H. NEWBERY We are proverbially told that travellers oftentimes meet with strange bedfellows. Art is a sojourner, who in turn has dwelt with barbarism, with paganism, with Chris- tianity, and with literature ; and in these later days she has perforce to accept the companionship, and eat of bread with commercialism. And in so doing. Art must oftentimes wonder at the strange fellowship into which her wanderings have brought her. The equal birth in time with barbarism seemed comprehensible ; the alliance with religion a part of that creed which both preached ; but what of this noisy, hasty, self-seeking partner, with whom Art now shares the bed and board .? What lot can she have with the money-changer, whose value is above price ; and what truck with the buyers and sellers, she who can neither be bought nor sold ? Truly would it be a parlous partnership did Art stop to think about her surround- ings. But that Art happily never does. Circumstances are ever of her own making, and opportunities come often before they are required ; and commercialism at least allows that which neither religion nor literature permitted, and that is, it lets Art do its own will in its own way. Commercialism neither lays down a rule nor demands the following of a tradition. All that is asked is, that the productions of the artist shall be compre- hensible to the commercial mind, or, failing this, that they be hung and guarded, on the understanding that pride and bravery shall be in the ownership (for that xi GLASGOW SCHOOL the owner possesses that which he does not understand), and that the capital invested in the paint and canvas, with, perhaps, the brains of the artist thrown in, shall return themselves tenfold into the bosom of the investor, should he wish to realise. And withal Art seems to flourish under the somewhat eccentric conditions that arise out of this companionship with commercialism, and she does so in strange places and in extremely curious environments. And in these things history, as usual, repeats itself. In the fourteenth century, Bruges was the commercial capital of Northern Europe. Her busy, bustling, noisy streets were filled with hurried, harassed men, rushing to and fro. Her merchants were strict of purpose, and stern of habit, and wore grave faces and puckered brows. Commerce held complete and undisputed reign. And yet, in the middle of all this, was the birth of a move- ment that completely revolutionised the Art of painting in oils as then practised. The discovery made by the two citizen brothers Van Eyck stood to the development of Art much in the same relation as did the finding of America, a few years later, revolutionise the minds of business men as to the possibilities of the growth of commerce. And this improvement in the then practised Art of oil-painting was brought about by two artists who were simply doing their day's work ; that of paint- ing altar-pieces, saints and angels. They pursued this avocation with rules and with methods, much in the same manner as did the burghers and merchants around them conduct their businesses ; they worked day by day as part of the commercial activity of the city of Bruges, and not only were they inventing mediums and perfecting methods, but they were also painting the first pictures of that school that— creeping afterwards through Holland, and up the Rhine — became finally the great Gothic School of the North of Europe. In the next century, a similar scene enacted itself xii INTRODUCTION in Italy. Venice, bearing the burden of an offensive and defensive demand on her part for power and position, yet had time to make an artistic name of the highest order, and to create for herself a place in the Temple of Art, that she shares with Madrid and with Amsterdam ; in each of which cities. Art has written her name over, and blotted out any mark made by the commercialism which these communities may, at that time, have carried on. And this spirit of restless activity, of exacting demand, of the need for strong, burly lives, engendered then as now by habits of business, must have infected these Venetian artists and the painters of these other cities : otherwise would Titian, Jacopo Robusti (sur- named Tintoretto) and Paolo Cagliari (called Veronese) have been as the recluses of the little hill-towns in which the tradition of Venetian Art was first born ; the Court of Philip IV. lacked the grace and adornment which Velasquez contributed to it, and the world have been the poorer and the sadder for the want of that light which Rembrandt carried into the slums of the capital of the Low Countries. It is curious to note how most of the great triumphs of Art have been won in cities, and in cities, too, whose life was oftentimes of the busiest and most complex de- scription. Rome, with its subtle life of political ecclesias- ticism, though never of herself producing an artist, yet, by her attraction of men, dominated, in the sixteenth century, the Art of the Italian Renaissance ; and Paris is to-day the hub of the Art Universe, because of the blood and brains of men, brought from the outermost confines of France. A civic life would seem to knock fire out of men, like the sparks evolved from the contact of flint and steel. And at this end of the nineteenth century, in the midst of one of the busiest, noisiest, smokiest cities, that, with its like fellows, make up the sum-total of xiii GLASGOW SCHOOL the greatness of Britain's commercial position, there is a movement existing, and a compelling force behind it, whose value we cannot yet rightly appraise or whose influence is not yet bounded, but which, both movement and movers, may yet, perhaps, put Glasgow on the Clyde into the hands of the future historian of Art, on much the same grounds as those on which Bruges, Venice, and Amsterdam find themselves in the book of the life of the world. And in making such a statement and in advanc- ing such a claim, it were well to guard against either exaggeration of language or an extravagant dealing with facts. All work that is being accomplished, and all effort that has reached a certain present finality, are, on account of their nearness to the onlooker, entirely out of perspective, and have oftentimes a worth that is purely fictitious, and an estimate which bears no relation to the real value. Into present calculations as to the possible fame of any newly-created work of Art, there may enter many qualities, such as taste, or fashion, or inclination, or eccentricity, which in reality are pure importations, but which none the less serve to bias our judgment and to warp our decisions from the right issues. And in this present instance, dealing with this movement now exercising an influence in and from the city of Glasgow, it should be borne in mind that neither revolution nor revelation is being attempted, nor are the minds of the workers bent upon much else than that of doing a day's work with the best possible credit to themselves. These Scottish artists desire to be neither prophets nor preachers, nor do they attempt that which Art should ever have left to the pulpit — namely, the task of conversion. Furthermore, it is extremely unlikely that any such result is to follow from their efli^orts as was the outcome of the discovery of the Van Eycks ; nor are their works likely to displace the treasures the Old Masters have left us. One thing, however, is certain. The Glasgow portraits and land- xiv INTRODUCTION scapes will never have the sky line at future permanent exhibitions ; and the future New-Zealander, after visiting the ruins of St Paul's, may possibly propose to himself a pilgrimage to the city of Glasgow, in order to see the pictures produced by the later nineteenth-century artists who worked within her boundaries. Let us, however, look at the position this group of men take up. The great painters of the Venetian School have, with Velasquez and Rembrandt and the Landscapists, places in the hearts of artists which neither the fluctua- tions of fashion nor the varying bids of the auction- room are likely to change. The Glasgow men are content to follow in the steps of these past artists, and to carry on that tradition of Art to which these Old Masters in their turn and time contributed. And in so doing they endeavour to start with clear issues. With no proselytising creed, they yet have a firm belief in one thing — which is, that it is quite sufficient for Art to be Art, and to be the most beautiful thing that the hand of man is capable of making of her. That Art need neither be the teacher of religion nor the handmaid of literature, but that Art is a quality which should have a place in the hearts of men, side by side with religion, with literature, or with any other of those great influences which enable mankind to express their gratification in creation and mark their sense of the Creator. But having such sentiments, it does not follow that these men feel themselves selected or set apart, as to a mission. Far from it. All they do is to endeavour to show their faith by their works and to set forth their beliefs by the sentiments their pictures bear. None the less are they the force behind a movement whose influence is both evident and extending. Now, it may safely be taken that most movements, whether artistic or political or under any other heading' are protests against tradition, as then received. Men think about matters, and some of the clearer among XV GLASGOW SCHOOL them begin to see there is something wrong in — say, a certain state of affairs. Gaining in strength of thought these men protest, and then and there begins the inception of a movement. A pohtician protests in a pamphlet or stirs up strife by a speech. An artist paints a picture or executes a piece of decorative Art work. Both artist and pohtician are usually laughed at (the former the more, because everybody would appear to understand all about Art, while, on the other hand, few can comprehend politics) ; but while the politician is bound to make good his contention or drop his cause, the artist must simply put his feelings into his pipe or into his pocket, and do the same as all his predecessors have done under similar circumstances, which is to do some more work in exactly the same manner. And here oftentimes comes in a phenomenon, not always certainly confined to Art, but which, whenever evolved, invariably adds power to the tongue of the blasphemer. The artist, for instance, seeing this work of his rejected and despised, hardens his heart and exaggerates in his next production those very differ- ences which mark his work from that commonly accepted ; and so the progress of his ideas among critics and the general public (a progression, it should be said, usually of little moment to the artist himself) is retarded and his motives misunderstood. Such a state of matters must always hold good while the exhibition walls remain the test of an artist's power and position. Once free from this levelling influence and at liberty to express himself in his own way, the whole facts become changed. But it still remains a truth, that among the leaders of any movement appear that exaggeration and overstrain- ing which are ever the causes of battle ; less because their works are in reality much out of the normal, but simply because of the very difference, however slight, between their productions and the normal. Popular xvi INTRODUCTION tradition in Art is very much Hke Dagon in the house of the PhiHstines. Directly a man with a new idea approaches it, it falls in pieces even as did the god, and people very much dislike having their idols broken down. This revolt against the accepted order of things, neither sudden or rapid, but none the less sure, was the beginning of the movement among the Glasgow artists. They looked back at the tradition as created by the great portrait painters — Italian, Spanish, Dutch, British : they asked themselves the question, why the pictorial landscape to-day differed so widely from that as understood of the great Landscapists ; why mere Nature played so important a part ; and why Art was shelved and the Artist considered a thing of small moment .? And in this asking of questions, these men were not alone. A similar catechising was going on elsewhere, and, perhaps, with a much greater show of reason. About the time the younger Glasgow men were bestirring themselves, the Association of Painters in London, known as the New English Art Club, was making its assault upon the citadel of academicism, and was endeavouring to throw down the walls of that artistic Jericho, into which they and their works were equally forbidden, then, to enter. In Paris the fight against the tradition of the State school and of the strong man who ran the atelier, resulted in the separa- tion from the old ideals of a body of artists who now find room for their pictures on the walls of the Salon Champ de Mars. Germany, too, was not altogether quiescent — Munich, in fact, was aggressive ; and other countries showed signs, more or less evident, of the upheaval against the order of things that were. In London the fight, though brave at the outset, and by its terms of wordy defiance meant much, speedily had its fire damped and its ardour cooled by the diplomacy of the very body attacked ; who simply opened its gates and admitted such of their opponents as appeared the xvii c GLASGOW SCHOOL most formidable. In Paris the struggle is going on to-day, and probably will continue so long as a com- plaisant Minister of the Fine Arts finds rooms for the two opposing bodies in which to exhibit their trophies. But in Glasgow there was neither fight nor rupture ; and for the simple reason that there was neither academicism to battle against, nor an opposition, fitly to be called such, to be overcome. And what is more, men, resident in the West of Scotland, had painted pictures in a good tradition, and had thereby created an interest in Art matters, in more ways than one, helpful to the rise of this new movement. But here comes in the difference between Glasgow and, say, the majority of the great northern and midland cities of England. The Royal Academy of London controls not only the Metropolis, but issues its dictum and influences the Art tendencies of practically the whole of England. In the provincial cities and towns of England, an artist's success depends, in large measure, upon the annual acceptation or rejection of his works, by the hangers at Burlington House ; and he must be a strong man who can evade the test successfully and yet live. The Royal Academicians themselves set the Fashion in Art, and the smaller painters cultivate the cult. The pro- vincial galleries of the larger English towns are notoriously filled with pictures invited from the walls of the Royal Academy, and their permanent collections bulk with selections from the same source. Further- more, the big portraits and other commissions, and for the matter of that the smaller ones too, find their ways into the studios of the men with R.A. and A.R.A. after their names. Thus a tradition is kept up, and, good or bad, most men are compelled to accept it. And probably, on the whole, this is the best possible state of matters. For the Royal Academy is wise in its generation, and certainly all the really good men at present outside its xviii INTRODUCTION pale can be counted on the fingers of one's hand. And though these same men be, in some instances, notable outsiders, whether by desertion or non-election, it is not the fault of the Royal Academy that they are not adorning its Council Board, and sharing its publicity and its honours. But in Glasgow, on the contrary, there never was, nor at the present moment does there exist, either a controlling power vested in a body of artists, or an in- dication of opinion arising from a cultured lay community. Artists were, and still are, free to do what they like, as they like, provided always they take the consequences of their own ways and works. The business man buys what he likes, or is persuaded to like, or because it pleases him ; and though the Glasgow artists might possibly wish for a better representation than at present is the case, either in the municipal or in local private galleries, it would be hard to find a city where there are collections of pictures showing greater bravery of purchase. The very rivalry between the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow served the purpose of emphasising the position taken up by the Glasgow men. The Royal Scottish Academy is now richer in the possession of strong recruits, which a more enlightened policy has had the wisdom to enrol from among the Glasgow men ; but when the movement spoken of began, some ten or twelve years ago, there was practically no representative from Glasgow upon the Royal Scottish Academy roll, and very little inducement offered the young aspirants working in the West to contribute their productions to the walls of its annual Exhibition. As for Burlington House, it certainly exercised no influence upon the movement, and it may be questioned whether, even at the present moment, there is any large number of Glasgow painters affected in their work, either by its dicta or its desires. Certainly the Exhibitions of the xix GLASGOW SCHOOL Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts are noticeable by the absence of the works of living Royal Academ- icians, a position of matters that should cause a little regret, especially when it be considered who some of these Royal Academicians are. But it may broadly be stated, that in Glasgow a man's success is not dependent upon the judgment passed on his work by the selecting committee of the Royal Academy ; and the possibility has been proved of artists working in Glasgow and attaining to a world-wide fame and reputation, without being even regular contributors to the walls of Burlington House. This young body of painters, therefore, working in Glasgow, and now happily — or unhappily — since styled the Glasgow School of Painters, had no cause to complain of their efforts being thwarted, or their aspirations checked by the influence of a power that held possession, and which either ruled the market or dictated the taste. The field for their labours was as clear from any cramping or confining influences, as were the very earth and heavens they delighted to depict, and the traditions of a school — which, like bands binding a prisoner, have to be broken before even the blood can quicken the pulses — never even had an existence in the case of the Glasgow men. They, of course, had the usual little personal ebullitions of feeling from their critics to put up with ; those little hints about the lunatic asylum and so on, which most men who start out in charge of new ideas have to endure ; but they certainly had no Royal Academy to tramp their life out, nor an opposing body of artists with other ideals and with whom this new departure meant war to the knife. And it may be interesting here to deal with the title of " school " in connection with this movement. The term " school " is a vague one. As used in Art-history, it means either a man and his followers, or a body of men associated together to produce work which should be executed in a certain trade manner, or a grouping of XX INTRODUCTION men into a companionship for the preaching of Ethics by means of their Art. In all these instances, a certain stamp or method marks the common idea running through the work, but in Glasgow none of these con- ditions hold good. A leader might certainly at one time have possibly been acknowledged, but if so, it was more from political than for artistic reasons. Far from the pictures produced bearing a certain family likeness, nothing could be more diverse than the individual efforts of the band. In fact, individuality was the one great quality sought to be evolved. No art tenets, whether of line, composition, or colour, were made a special feature of, and though for a short period there existed a vague idea that artistic salvation might possibly be gained by painting in a certain technique, the utmost liberty and freedom were allowed ; always pro- vided that a man produced something that was his own in conception, and which bore the stamp of the producer's personality. Then again, nothing could exceed the cosmopolitan character of the workers. To have been born in Glasgow was neither considered of special merit nor a particular recommendation, nor was the welcome anything the colder, because a man, other than a Scotchman, was working in Glasgow, as the result of accident, or migration ; assuming always he was doing the accepted thing. And the pages of this book might possibly have been the richer by the notices of men left out, but who have helped to make Glasgow known to the Art-world, equally as some painters find places therein, whose claims may not be considered either prior or paramount. Whether, how- ever, it be self-elected into, or considered as a school by outsiders, is a matter of little moment. Schools are notably fatal to all progress, because a school means a type, and the Glasgow men have happily not yet arrived at that stage. The ground thus cleared, inquiry may, perhaps, be had, as to what influences brought about, xxi GLASGOW SCHOOL and from what sources of inspiration came this change of ideas from those usually accepted. And the result of the inquiry is somewhat unsatisfactory. Certain men might possibly be named, as those who first began to do things differently from the accepted canon, but these men would themselves, probably, be the very first to deny the statement. Slight, however, as may be any beginnings, history assures us that all commencements are the results of observation ; and if, as before stated, the prevailing idea of the movement was a return to the old and forsaken traditions, then it may safely be assumed that some part of the influence arose either from a study of the pictures of artists who had worked in or made such traditions, or an examination of the works of modern men, with whom these same traditions were still a living guide. And as regards this latter set of pictures, Glasgow has always been extremely for- tunate. For the last twenty years the finest examples of the work of the Barbizon School and of the modern Dutch masters ; of Millet ; Corot ; Diaz ; Monticelli ; the Maris Brothers ; Israels, and many others, have been bought by Glasgow buyers and were brought before the eyes of the Glasgow artists, long before London had recognised even the existence of these Continental influences. The International Exhibition in Edinburgh in the year 1886, brought together a col- lection of Dutch and French pictures, such as it would be almost impossible to surpass, and these examples were eagerly studied by the Glasgow men. Private collections, where these same pictures hung, were always open to inspection, and it was undoubtedly such influences as these, slight though they may appear, that were the first motors in the movement. The enterprise of a fine-art dealer in Glasgow in bringing these pictures to the city was of paramount use and importance, and the young minds could not see without carrying away impressions. But without being too didactic, it may be xxii INTRODUCTION said that the movement was a renascence, whose birth was in more places than one ; and in Glasgow, where the ground was clear and the moment opportune, where its life could not be crushed at birth by the weight of a false tradition, nor nursed out of existence by the sapping of supplies — there and therefore this renascence became a movement, and men were ready to become disciples. National temperament decided its form, and local iniluences moulded its outcome ; but these same qualifications naturally exercise their powers anywhere. Certainly, beyond any possible fructifying it might have had, by the study of work other than its own, the Glasgow men owe nothing, either to Continental teaching or to foreign influence, nor were their early efforts — as is commonly supposed — a second-hand re- flection of the work of some Continental artists, or a power borrowed from the machinery of the Parisian ateliers. Had such been either the case or the causes, Glasgow Art could never have made for itself the strong, self-reliant, commanding position it now has ; for borrowed light can never eclipse its source, and crippled men can never walk without their crutches. FRA. H. NEWBERY. The Glasgow School of Art, September iSgj. XXlll THE GLASGOW SCHOOL D. Y. CAMERON Cameron for a number of years has been more in evidence as an etcher than as a picture-painter, though, as a matter of fact, he used the brush as early as the needle. His etchings were the first to attract attention, and his progress has been such that his later plates have established his claim to rank as one of the best among the younger etchers of to-day. In his etchings he shows a well-selected and expressive line, and his treatment of the light and shade, carried to great fulness, is suggestive of colour, and gives animation to his merest transcript of nature. The decorative arrangement of many of his plates is exquisite, especially when depict- ing an imaginative figure-subject or the head of a peasant girl with a quaint head-dress. As a picture-painter, however, he has proved by many of his canvases that he is gifted with a fine sense of colour, and can paint with a technical breadth and freedom at once artistic and painter-like. In his pictures Cameron has essayed landscape, figure-subject, and portraits, and the quality of his work has suffered nothing by the variety of theme or subject which he has set himself to accomplish. His use "of the etcher's needle so long and continuously has no doubt helped him in his observation and appreciation of form, which in his pictures is always a feature. Among the first of Cameron's works which directed attention to him as a painter was Noonday, an oil- painting, though previously he had shown some clever I A GLASGOW SCHOOL work in landscape and portraiture. In 1892 T'eviotside, a. landscape of the Borderlands, true in colour and effect of light, and Portrait of a Girl in Red were his principal works. A visit to Holland was the inspiring source of a number of pictures characteristic in spirit of the flat lands and windmills, the canals and quaint buildings of that country, and of these A Dutch Port and Amsterdam were noteworthy. Anemones (painted about the same time, 1893), shows a girl seated at a table on which is arranged a group of flowers, dainty and delightful, the ensemble of the picture being very complete alike for colour and design. The next year he completed some interesting and imaginative figure- subjects, graceful in composition and pose, and attractive for their beautiful colour schemes and for a certain suggestive and mystic feeling. Isabel ; Jean ; Through the Woods ; Dieppe ; and The Old Harbour, were among the more prominent — the first three being figure- subjects and the latter a landscape, showing an appre- ciative knowledge of the picturesque character of an old shipping port, where masts and rigging mingle with quays and warehouses. In his succeeding pictures, such as The White Butterfly, Fairy Lilian, and The Wild Rose, he secured rare qualities of colour and decorative design. The influence of Matthew Maris, the Dutch painter, is evident in some of these pictures ; although, perhaps, even that should not be regarded as a fault ; for imitation was not intended, and the works have much that is personal and characteristic of Cameron. The Golden Mirror, 2l female figure picture. Portrait of Mrs Mann, and other portraits in 1896, gave further display of his advancement in the right direction ; and of his later work. The Bride, Daisy, and Portrait of Mr Rintoul, QjC, M.P., give still more evidence that this painter is to be recognised as a gifted artist, whose efforts are to be admired as much in painted picture as in etched plate. Y. CAMERON Portrait J. E. CHRISTIE Though for some years living and working in London, Christie has always been in touch with the art of Glasgow, and his sympathies have ever been with the movement. Recently he has painted in Glasgow, and is now again directly identified with the art of that city. Christie was born in a little village in Fifeshire, on the east coast of Scotland, but at an early age was settled in the west, and for a number of years studied drawing in the School of Design at Paisley. After these preliminary studies he went to the South Kensington Schools for a few years, and there gained his first important recognition as an Art student, carrying off the gold medal of the Schools for a study from the antique. Following this success, he was awarded at the Royal Academy Schools in 1877 the gold medal for the best historical painting, his sub- ject being The Introduction of Christianity into Britain. From his earliest youth Christie has shown a delight in painting themes inspired by the poetical works of Robert Burns, and in 1879 he produced what may be called the first of a long series of similar subjects, Tarn d Shanter, depicting the three worthies spoken of in the poem : " Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious," which picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and purchased there for the Permanent Gallery at Sydney. Next year, 1880, Christie painted a very note- 3 GLASGOW SCHOOL worthy work, and which has brought the artist much renown. This was The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a pic- ture not only notable for general artistic qualities, but specially noteworthy for the fine interpretation ot child-life which it displayed. Continuing from this, Christie gave us a delight- ful study of a youngster entangled among undergrowth, and to which he gave the appropriate title, A Rose among Thorns. In 1882 Christie was able to realise a long-desired wish to study and further his power of drawing and painting, by going to Paris, where his companions were Stanhope Forbes, S. J. Solomon, La Thangue, and others. To this study he owes, perhaps, much as regards his strong power of drawing and breadth of brush work. It certainly had the effect of con- siderably altering his mode of painting, though without in any way influencing his selection of subjects or colour, as is often the case of many who study at Paris and then paint "Frenchy" pictures at home. Christie has always shown that he is possessed of a powerful imagination, and in his pictures this desirable quality is conveyed with much insight. Whatever be the subject chosen there is in everything he produces that strong feeling of the painter's own personality in the outcome. In his later pictures this charm is more apparent, and especially in the realisation of pictures where children are the chief motif. Variety of subject has ever been one of the features in Christie's work ; and in the long list of pictures he has painted, it is amazing to note how varied they are in this respect, and what a delight one has in studying such variety. Christie's busy brush next produced a number of interesting figure-subjects, such as Sorrow's Solace, a widow mother caressing her child ; Blind Grannie, an old blind woman recognising her grandchild by pass- ing her hand over the features of the child ; Rustic Belles, exhibited with first group of Glasgow painters at 4 J. K. CHRISTIE The Red Fisherman J. E. CHRISTIE Munich ; A Lion in the Path, showing a group of young children, who, pillaging a flower garden, are startled by the owner, and, as they hurry from the forbidden grounds, are confronted by a dog ; and Halloween, children re- velling in the old-time custom, with lanterns, by the edge of a wood at nightfall. After these, Christie chose quite a new class of subject, of which Phosphor was perhaps the first. It was a purely imaginative theme of great beauty, and treated with accomplishment ; and Dawn was a similar theme of equal charm. Another imaginative subject followed : The Red Fisherman, which was conceived from Praed's poem — " All alone by the side of the pool, A tall man sate on a three-legged stool." The picture is well known, and has been exhibited in many important exhibitions. During his career Christie has painted many in- teresting portraits, and of late he has completed some that are distinctly original in treatment. Among these are Mr Primrose, Mr David Hetinedy, and Daughters of ■ Bailie Shearer, where the likeness of the sitter was equalled by the artistic colour-scheme and posing. Then came the large canvas entitled Vanity Fair, which the Corporation of Glasgow purchased. In this picture the motif was to realise the vanity of life, as set forth by the crowd in the picture, who are grasping at bubbles which a fair young creature blows from her hands as she stands on the stage of a booth. The picture is strong in colour, and shows a great variety in the many types of old, young, and middle-aged people painted therein. The next large picture which Christie painted was Suffer the little Children to come unto Me, and, as given by the title, the subject was a Biblical . one. As opposed, however, to the traditional style of presenting this 5 GLASGOW SCHOOL subject, the artist portrayed nineteenth-century children being blessed by our Saviour. In it the painter has endeavoured to show that the influence of Christ is as great to-day as it was hundreds of years ago ; and he has sought to impress this by the realistic treatment of the children playing on the grass, while the present- ment of Christ is as a Spirit, surrounded by angels and cherubs in the sky. His latest picture is The Wheel of Fortune, where the mythical figure of Fortune is seen passing through a crowd on a wheel. Every type of life is presented in the picture ; but only the brave are conscious of Fortune's presence. The artist's conception of the subject is at once new, and put forward with much strength. 6 JOSEPH CRAWHALL, JUN. It was in keeping with the fitness of things artistic that the first exhibition of the collected works of Joseph Crawhall should be held in Glasgow. For in this Art centre, especially on the part of those who support the new movement, much appreciation has been shown for his work. The chief characteristic of his style is a love for beautiful colour (a fine quality of grey often being the scheme adopted), combined with masterful technical accomplishment. Each tone is remarkable in its range and harmony, and each spot of colour, exquisitely laid down, has a distinct value in the picture. Again, it is evident that every wash of the brush reveals a whole world of analysis both in character and form. In even the smallest of his sketches, and which are apparently ,so slight in character, appear qualities of colour and decoration which mark the work as peculiarly interest- ing and noteworthy to an observer. Mr Crawhall has formed for himself a unique style which shows originality of artistic expression alike in composition and decorative effect. In it there is no trace of that " still-life " feeling too apparent in much of the water-colour work of to-day. It is full of vitality, showing at once the direction of his method and his ability to seize the dominant features of his subject and carry it through from beginning to end with perfect symmetry of style and character. As regards the particular phase or branch of pictorial art — the artistic record of animal life — with which Mr Crawhall has evinced most sympathy, he occupies a position equalled by few other living painters. 7 GLASGOW SCHOOL Although most of this artist's work is in water- colours, he also expresses his impressions by means of pastel in a very capable and dexterous manner. Further- more, he is very successful in another class of work, where the pen outline is filled in with a wash of colour. This is a style of treatment which has a distinct charm of its own. Many of his sketches are delightfully epigrammatic in their simplicity of statement : as in one, for instance, where he indicates a row of rabbits sitting among the corn, hiding from the sportsman who passes along without seeing his game ; or in others, where, for example, he gives the impression of an up-to-date young lady on a racecourse, or where he depicts scenes on the hunting-field or incidents in " horsey " life. Joseph Crawhall was born a little over thirty years ago at Newcastle-on-Tyne. From his boyhood his instinct towards drawing and painting was evident : more especially his love for sketching animals. In this he was no doubt inspired by his father, the late Joseph Crawhall, who was clever with the pencil and an en- thusiastic sportsman. At the beginning of the eighties, in collaboration with Mr James Guthrie, he illustrated in charming style a second edition of his father's " The Compleatest Angling Booke." About the same time he accompanied Mr E. A. Walton and a number of the younger Glasgow painters (who by-and-by were to make " Art-history " in Glasgow) to a little village in the Scottish Highlands called Brig o' Turk. Here he did many studies, both in oils and black-and- white, of horses and other animals. There can be little doubt that he influenced his fellow-workers in an unmistakable manner. Later on, he painted with Mr Guthrie in Crowland, where he also continued his studies of animal life. Still later, with the same earnest desire to improve his technique, he went to Paris, and joined the studio of Mons. Aime Morot ; but learnt little from that master, his teaching being entirely at 8 JOSEPH CRAWHALL, JUN. variance with Crawhall's ideas. Consequently he pre- ferred to study outside : in the Parisian boulevards, in the parks, and in the country. In the reproductions here given, many of the typical points in the painter's work may be noted ; the charm of his design and composition, and the distinct evidence of that most excellent artistic quality, knowing what to utilise in the matter of detail. His pictures are entirely free from the trivial and useless, showing no complications of uncertainty, and lacking nothing of that spontaneity which is the great charm of water-colour work. In "The Aviary these qualities are pronounced, not unduly, but with an artistic reserve in sympathy with the rich colour-scheme of the subject. The jury at the Munich International Exhibition in 1890 awarded this picture a second-class gold medal. The Barb Horse in Stable, while also embodying admirable qualities, is however, more noteworthy on account of the delightful subtlety of the colour, at once refined and beautiful, the clearness of the tone-values, and the repose. Among recent work, perhaps the finest is a series of drawings which depict the incidents of the Spanish Bull-ring, in which Mr Crawhall found much to inspire and fascinate. All his pictures are markedly evident of the artist's wonderful power of concentration, and of his vitality in recording his impressions of animal life. 9 B T. MILLIE DOW The opportunity of studying Art in Paris was early afforded Millie Dow, and from the first he enjoyed the splendid facilities the French schools then afforded. Abandoning his intention of studying for the legal profession, Dow worked first at the Beaux Arts and then in Gerome's studio, and later, in one or two other ateliers. But it is Gerome that he regards as his teacher, and from whom he derived the greatest benefit. Born in a Fifeshire town, Millie Dow has ever since his Paris days been more or less connected with Glasgow Art, and to-day, though he lives far south from that city, he is still identified with its new movement. From the first he has always exhibited as one of the group, though his pictures are seldom seen except at the Glasgow Institute, the Munich Exhibitions, and in one or two of the other galleries where the Glasgow men have been invited to send work. His sympathies are in close touch with Glasgow, and his work embodies those qualities of Art which have made the whole group of men distinguished. Since 1880, when he ex- hibited a small picture, T'he Garden, Dow has been a regular exhibitor at the Glasgow Institute. In 1882 he had in the exhibition Chrysanthemums, 'The Village Street, and A Dangerous Corner. In 1883 he showed Fisher Girl Resting and Tramps at Sundown, a typical picture of the painter's style. In 1885 he was well represented by three very distinctive works — Twilight at Rye, Chrysanthemums, and The Hudson River, the latter is a dream-like impression of the great river, seen from an upland foreground on which are trees. The colour 10 ■i|*-SI'.. i" I , T. MILLIE DOW is delicate and suave, and is realised with much feel- ing. The following year he showed another idyllic landscape entitled Spring, and in 1887 he had again a flower study, Chrysanthetnums, and Autumn Landscape. In 1888 came another flower study, Roses, which proves how delicate is his colour and his treatment. September Landscape was also in this exhibition. About this time he turned his attention to portraiture, and showed selection in the harmonious schemes, adding by their means interest to the likeness and to the character of the sitter. Three of these portraits, entitled 'L. Dow, Esq., T'own Clerk of Dysart ; A Lady in Black, and A Lady in White, were exhibited in the Institute of 1889. Again, in 1890 he exhibited in the Glasgow Institute a portrait, both life-like and painter-like in its treatment, and two pictures, entitled Spring in Morocco and "The British Fleet off 'Langiers, painted in Morocco, where he had spent the preceding winter. The prin- cipal works he exhibited in 1891 were, A Northern Shore, Fleurs de Lis, and Poppies. The next year, 1892, Dow exhibited T'he Enchanted Wood, one of the finest pictures he has ever painted, which attracted much attention. In the foreground are tree trunks by the edge of a wood, overlooking the still, silent sea with headlands running into it, and above, the full moon, rising over the distant low-lying hills. Among the trees is dimly noticeable the form of some woodland nymph with a wand in her outstretched hand, casting, as it were, a glamour of enchantment over the scene. The sentiment of the land- scape under the bewitching efi^ect of moonlight, the harmony of design and low-toned colour-scheme, are all rendered with an intensity of feeling that is as sensuous as it is impressive. The same year the picture, along with The Hudson River, was exhibited in the Walker Art Gallery, and in 1894 it was shown at the Royal Scottish Academy. His pictures of 1893 were Storm Clouds, a sea-piece, the sky heavy with cumulus clouds, which are 1 1 GLASGOW SCHOOL reflected in the calm waters and suggest the coming storm ; At Lelant was the other. In the Glasgow Institute of 1894 he exhibited a symbolical subject, executed with much originality of design and decorative effect of colour, entitled T'he Herald of Winter. It shows a female figure in classic draperies, standing on a rock with the green-blue sea behind, who, with elongated horn, summons the flock of birds which fly past to other climes. The succeeding year Dow again exhibited an imaginative subject-picture, T^he Kelpie, of distinct merit alike for its artistic qualities of work, its subdued colour, and for the conception. The idea of the artist was to represent, in physical form, the female sprite of a wood- land pool as she sits perched on a rock rising from the still, deep waters of her home. Her hair, dark-hued and wet, falls down her back and face ; and with her hands she pushes it back, revealing a sad-eyed, wistful coun- tenance. Her beautiful form, lithe and sleek, would but seem to fascinate only to disappear. High rocks clad with fern and flowers, among which a stream of water falls, form the background, and on the calm surface of the water float bubbles, white and transparent. For a time after this Dow painted in Italy ; and in the Glasgow Institute Exhibitions of 1896 and 1897 exhibited pictures of the Valley in the Apennines, a picturesque composition of a village nestling among the foliage of a hillside, and Spring in the Apennines — a group of bright-blossomed trees on the hillside overlooking a valley suffused with the heat and haze of strong sunlight. To the Royal Scottish Water-Colour Society's Ex- hibitions Dow has been a frequent contributor, and his pictures in water-colour, mostly studies of flowers, display much delightful work, and show power in the handling and the treatment of wash and detail. The scholarly and sympathetic character of Dow's work is evident in all he does. Refined and dis- T. MILLIE DOW tinctive, his pictures have always a charm for the intelligent picture lover, for they show a wide range of subject and a treatment in keeping with the thought or the impression which he desires to place on canvas. Never slovenly, he trusts to no accident in carrying out his idea, and in whatever he produces, be it sketch or finished picture, a keen selection expressed with loving care is distinctly evident. His choice of subject, and the methods by which he strives to get his work absolutely right, keep him engaged a long time at the same canvas. Therefore, although he is a close worker, he turns out but few pictures. He carries his work through to the finish with the greatest thought and study ; although during its progress he may alter many times both the design and colour arrangement. In viewing Dow's work, it is not for any peculiarity or eccentricity in scheme or treatment that it proclaims itself distinguished ; but rather for some personal note or thought to which it gives record. Or it may be that the scheme of colour in which he has clothed his theme or the decorative arrangement of the composition, refined and beautiful, make instant appeal. His technique is always in sympathy with the subject he paints, and though he may lack that brilliancy and cleverness of brush work so much applauded in the work of many, his execution reveals the thorough craftsman. In oil or water-colour, pastel or pencil, he has proved his capabilities ; and he has designed and carried through some stained-glass work that shows a rare appreciation of the craft and its limitations. In his colour schemes Dow is invariably reserved ; searching more for the subtle tones of that which he paints than for a bizarre effect of forcible notes. His perception of colour is similar to his use of paint — keen and refined ; and his observation of nature such as to give a true feeling of form, without a slavish imitation. 13 GLASGOW SCHOOL He has the faculty of placing on canvas the essence of the abstract qualities of his subject, with a fine decora- tive arrangement of line and colour masses, and, let the theme be an idyllic landscape or an imaginative figure- subject, he combines in a satisfactory result the ideal with the real ; feeling and personality investing the work with an intense charm. There is a delightfully reserved feeling throughout all he accomplishes, which, as in pictures like The Enchanted Wood, The Kelpie, or a still unfinished picture. Eve, with a nude figure for its keynote, preserves the semblance of physical beauty, and with it the spiritual. Thus the appeal is to the purest thought, and to the love of the beautiful — two dominant features and aims of the artist's life. JAMES GUTHRIE Guthrie is a Scotchman, having been born in Greenock less than forty years ago. His Art, however, cannot be locaHsed as Scottish any more than it can be said to belong to any other nation. It is as cosmopolitan as the appreciation it has earned, and it reflects the artist whose admiration for the best work of to-day is as keen as it is for that by the great masters of the past. From his early training and associations Guthrie has gained much, and he has always a scholarly and dignified conception of what is before him. He is a many-sided man ; but first and fore- most an artist. Whatever he does he does well ; but in his pictures he goes beyond that, for he conveys a depth of thought and a grasp of character which reveal more than accomplishment. Both in portraiture and landscape this powerful characterisation is apparent. For some years in his younger days Guthrie lived in London, and came much in contact with the late John Pettie, R.A., from whom he received advice ; and subsequently he visited Paris. More good, how- ever, resulted, as it has done for all his companions, in working in the open from nature, and a sojourn in the early " eighties " with some of the group in the Scottish Highlands and with Crawhall in Lincolnshire laid the foundation of his style. For the close observation of nature and the incessant endeavour to make experi- ments to interpret her anew were more to these student- painters than all the studio-teaching or the traditions of pictures. From the first his pictures — for instance, in one 17 c GLASGOW SCHOOL which represented an old tramp resting by the wayside — have displayed a strength of realism in conjunction with an insight into the feeling of the subject that lifted his work out of the ordinary rut. In ^he Gipsy Fires are Burning for Daylight Past and Gone, a picture exhibited in 1882, or in Funeral Service in the Highlands, painted about the same time, he shows, not a commonplace sentimentality appealing to the crowd, but the true depth of the feeling of an artist seeing and grasping the reality of life. In 1882 he also ex- hibited Sheep-Smearing, an interior subject, and two small canvases. Paid of and The Cottars Garden. In 1885 his largest picture was T'o Pastures New — a flock of geese herded by a young girl over flat grazing lands. It was treated with a strong sunlight effect, and solid brush work, the paint being, perhaps, a little too evident. During 1886 Guthrie finished two notable canvases, for which, when exhibited at Paris, Brussels, Glasgow, and elsewhere, he received the greatest praise from many distinguished critics and artists. The one was a por- trait. The Rev. Dr Gardiner, and the second Schoolmates — a group of village children returning from school. The portrait may be regarded as the first of an admirable series in which he has gradually developed style, colour, and execution. It displays a firmness of treatment with a reticent colour-scheme which help the quiet dignity and austere character of the sitter. When hung in the Salon at Paris, a well-known French writer on Art, in reviewing the exhibition, said of this portrait : " It reveals to us a master, and we would most gladly naturalise this foreigner so full of talent." Schoolmates, painted much in sympathy with the work of Bastien Lepage, had both that quality of realism and the spirit of the subject so truly felt in the work of the French artist. Technically the picture showed full command of the brush and medium ; but in all Guthrie's work at this period, and till, perhaps, 1890, there was an JAMES GUTHRIE inclination to " load " the colour. All the same, Schoolmates was a worthy picture, and deserved being selected for the permanent gallery at Ghent, where it now is. In 1887 T^he Orchard, a large picture, was ex- hibited, and of it the critics were unanimous in appreci- ation. It is a beautiful picture, full of great thought, combined with simplicity of theme, children in an old- world orchard gathering fruit. In the succeeding two years portraits were completed of Mr Robert Goiirlay, Banker, and Mrs Fergus, and which were exhibited with a number of pastels. Then, in 1890, was finished the large equestrian portrait of Mr George Smith, life-size and extremely powerful in pose and in painter-like treatment, and one in which the capabilities of the artist were severely tried to keep details of such a composition subservient to the essential point — interest in the personality of the sitter. Of this portrait a critic wrote : " Most admirable work, with the impress of the master upon it recalling at once Courbet and Velasquez " — an impartial appreciation by a foreigner and an expert which is worth emphasising. Guthrie had practically forsaken landscape subjects at this time, but in the Glasgow Institute of 1891 he ex- hibited a small picture entitled Pastoral ; and the same year, in London, a series of pastels. In the latter medium he has done much excellent work, and shown how well he understands its possibilities and its use. The unerring touch and fresh, pure colour effect, the decorative feeling of line and mass when seeking to convey in pastel the beauty of some effect in nature, or of some incident in the many phases of labour in the fields or workshop, or a picturesque rustic in a straw hat or a blue blouse, prove how true his artistic faculties are to analyse and interpret the pathos of every-day life, and that, too, in a medium where it is absolutely essential to seize the effect and colour-scheme quickly. His work is never trivial, no matter what medium he employs, 19 GLASGOW SCHOOL and though it may seem unfinished to the ordinary viewer, the more observant will discover the subject presented with all necessary detail, but with no con- flicting interest to distract the attention and set the eye wandering over the canvas. In his earlier work detail of form, as detail of brush work (two distinct things), were no doubt evident, but never overdone, and the breadth of to-day is the natural outcome of experience and development. To say that Guthrie is a most capable draughtsman is to say little, but to say that he possesses great command of the brush is more ; and though at one time he was inclined to " load " his brush, he now works in a freer style, and, with no unnecessary waste of material, gets quality with a feeling of spontaneity. In choice of themes he has also changed ; he seldom now essays a subject- picture or landscape, but confines his attention more to portraiture. In this he has accomplished, and is engaged on, many noteworthy pictures, each succeeding one seeming to reveal more emphatically his great power. Midsummer, an out-of-door scene of young ladies seated at a table on a lawn with the foliage overhanging, and the sunlight casting lights and shadows over faces and figures, was completed, and, after being exhibited in various exhibitions, was ultimately deposited as Guthrie's diploma work as a member of the Royal Scottish Academy. The long list of portraits from this time starts with Major Hotchkiss — an excellent presentment of a military man strong in character, the red tunic of the sitter painted with skill and not detrimental in any way to the face. Continuing in order next comes Miss Spencer (in 1892),^ Miss Wilson, and the large portrait of the Archbishop of Glasgow, where the pattern made by the robe, gown, and other details of the costume are overcome success- fully and lead up to the portrayal of features interesting and full of character. Mrs Garroway and Mr Joseph Russell 20 JAMES GUTHRIE were exhibited at the Portrait Painters in 1894, and Mr P. B. Smollett in the Grafton Gallery the same year. In 1895 Miss Hamilton, a full-length of a young lady in walking costume, grey and black against a red background, is remarkable for its graceful pose and fine scheme. Then followed a distinguished portrait. Master Roy Garroway, and one of T'he Artist's Mother, rare in sympathetic feeling and in rich, though reserved, colour. Next we had Master Ned Martin — a simple delightful study of a young boy ; Bailie Alexander Sinclair and Mrs MacLeliose — two admirable pictures, conceived with a depth of insight and a masterly feeling of life. The one, a head of an elderly gentleman, characteristic and virile ; and the latter, of a lady in a black dress with shawl across her shoulders and a white lace cap. After these come a portrait of a lady — Mrs Martin — in evening costume and seated on a couch, silvery in colour-scheme and painted with verve ; and the latest is Bailie Osboriie, a portrait of great merit for its realisation of character : the austere yet kindly personality of the sitter being presented with loving care, and figure and background having correct values of tone. The interest and artistic value of Guthrie's work centre in his power of concentration and in his marvel- lous versatility of painting with equal success the por- traits of young or old, man, woman, or child. All are as sympathetically treated and as full of character as the living prototype. In landscape or subject-pictures he is also interesting in the variety of his schemes and com- positions, and in his impressions, be they ever so slight, he conveys a world of meaning. 21 J. WHITELAW HAMILTON Hamilton is another painter of the group ; who studied first in his native place, Glasgow, but sub- sequently worked for a time in Paris. He was a pupil of Dagnan - Bouveret and Aime Morot. The benefit of this study was seen in the improvement of his technique ; and since then he has developed a fine sense of the use of paint as paint to express his motif, whether it be the beautiful effect of an autumn landscape ablaze with sunlight, or the more reticent one of a stretch of moorland under an expanse of cloudy grey sky, or in a treatment expressive of sea and shore, or in the movement of a busy street scene. He paints equally well either in oil or in the medium of the aquarellist, and his colour always strikes a true note, being decorative without any straining after peculiarity of contrast or oddity of effect. He is seen at his best when painting a landscape in which occur groups of trees, cattle, and sheep, or in some phase of agricultural life with field-workers, which, while subservient to the landscape, are none the less important in his composition as spots of colour. In other of his landscapes he infuses great charm of colour and form in an expanse of sky broken with clouds and casting shadows over the fields and woodlands. Every picture he paints is artistic ; nothing from his brush is commonplace or uninteresting. Hamilton has exhibited in many exhibitions at home and abroad, and in some of the foreign ones has gained 22 J. WHITELAW HAMILTON distinctions ; one being the purchase of an admirable picture, A Clyde Shipyard, for the Art Gallery at St Louis, U.S.A., and another the award of a second gold medal for his work in the International Exhibition at Munich, 1897. 23 GEORGE HENRY George Henry first worked in "black-and-white," but in 1 88 1 he commenced to paint in his intervals of leisure. His daily work was purely mechanical, drawing on wood for engineers, varied occasionally by designs for posters for all sorts of manufactures. After a year or two he was able to devote more time to study and draw from the antique and life in the Glasgow School of Art. The subjects of Henry's earlier pictures were gener- ally landscapes with figures or cattle. By continual application both in studying from life and painting in the open, he has acquired a masterly technique and knowledge of nature, so that whatever the subject may be (and he is wonderfully versatile in his choice of themes), or whether it be treated in oil, water-colour, or pastel, his power of expression is equally remarkable. In 1 88 1 Henry spent some time working at Brig o' Turk, in the Scotch Highlands, and there had the companionship of some others of the Glasgow group. The experience he thus gained was very profitable. Studies of landscape, of figures and animals were all undertaken, leading up to two pictures, Gloaming in the Wood and A November Day, Brig d Turk, which were the first works he exhibited in public. The following year he executed a number of pictures, of which only two were exhibited. The principal picture in 1882 was entitled Head of Holy Loch a stretch of flat marsh-lands bordered by the sea, with hills in the distance, all suffused in strong sun- light. The year 1883 was a busy one with Henry, 24 GEORGE HENRY and he completed many pictures which displayed better qualities than any he had previously shown. A large landscape of trees with a foreground of long grass, treated with full colour effect and a decorative realism, was quite an exceptional achieve- ment for so young a painter. Street in Eyemouth and Eyemouth, two pictures of the red -tiled east coast village, were notable ; the latter showing the place under strong sunshine, which sparkles on the sails of the fishing-boats and on the deep blue of the sea. Around the Farm, also painted this year, is an ex- cellent group, the subject being calves tended by a herd lass. With the year 1883 Henry's art underwent a change, as in the work he subsequently attempted there is more of a decorative spirit than a liberal interpretation in his landscapes; and leaving Playmates, ^^2:\nX.&^ in 1884, we find him developing this quality very markedly in his work of 1885. That year he painted Noon, Sundown, Woman at Well, and Willows. The picture entitled Sundown — the sun setting enveloped in rime rising from the river and giving colour to the rushes lining the river banks — is instinct with the feeling of the evening hour. The subject of Willows, another of the series, is a group of trees with a foreground filled with bulrushes and long grass, the whole lit with strong sunlight. In these two pictures the decorative quality of colour and line are pronounced, and the painter fully realised the feeling of each effect. In 1886 he returned to the countryside where he had painted the previous season and completed Audrey, A Hedge-Cutter, October — a pastoral with figures and goats, all of which were exhibited in the Glasgow Institute ; where also in the succeeding year he showed A Kitchen Garden, Pastoral, and another small picture. Sundown. All were interesting, and clearly showed that the artist was striving after the qualities mentioned above. The same year saw also a charm- 25 D GLASGOW SCHOOL ing little figure-subject T^he Mushroom-Gatherer. In 1888 he exhibited at the Glasgow Institute two pictures, Gloaming — an interior with figure — and a Pastoral ; and the same year he painted some decorative panels, illustrative of the ballad T^he Banks of Allan Water. These, however, have never been shown in public, and are now in a West of Scotland mansion-house. A water-^ colour, also taken from the same ballad, "The Banks oj Allan 'Water, was one of the finest things shown in the Royal Scottish Water-Colour Society Exhibition at the time. The most notable work done by Henry in 1889 also the most important work he had produced so far was the large canvas, A Galloway Landscape. This provoked no little hostile criticism. It is a picture of great merit, alike for its conception and realisation. To appreciate it, one must first endeavour to comprehend the painter's intention to express by means of colour the sentiment of the fulness and fecundity of nature ; form being kept subservient, and the methods and treatment as simple and primitive in character as possible. Another notable picture of this time was The Druids (undertaken in collaboration with E. A. Hornel), a classical figure and landscape composition, primitive in its leading characteristics, and entirely barbaric in scheme. It depicts Druids leading home cattle laden with the sacred mistletoe. Gold leaf is used on parts of the picture. The two artists had worked in complete accord, and the result is satisfactory. In 1890 the picture was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery,_ but suffered from indifferent hanging. Cinderella, a delight- ful figure study, and Autumn, a landscape rich in colour, were also exhibited in 1890 with the Galloway Landscape. In 1890 Henry again undertook a large picture, The Star in the East, in collaboration with Hornel, which, though excellent in many ways, was not altogether successful. The same year he painted Jenny, a clever study of a girl's head ; Bloivtng 26 GEORGE HENRY Dandelions and Springtime : the next year, Poppies — a study of girls' heads among bright-coloured flowers, beautiful in colour and well painted ; The Straw Hat — a maiden with hat on, and set against a background of foliage, strong sunlight and shadow ; two landscapes, entitled Pastoral and Ayrshire Landscape — the latter showing pasture lands through which winds a stream, and cattle grazing around a homestead on the uplands, with autumn colour on the trees. Also the same year, A Gipsy and Thro' the Woods — a woodland with children, the colour full and the painting very effective in its breadth of handling — exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy in 1892. At the Glasgow Institute of 1893 Henry was only represented by one picture. Mademoiselle — a full-length of a young lady, chic in pose and skilfully treated, the colour-scheme reti- cent though rather low in tone. This work, while not altogether a portrait in the ordinary sense, displayed remarkable insight into the character both of the face and the figure. Unfortunately, the painter was seriously ill during the latter part of 1892, and was kept idle until February 1893, when he was able to go with E. A. Hornel to Japan, where he remained eighteen months. The voyage was productive of many interest- ing pictures and studies illustrative of Japanese life, the customs of the people, the varying incidents of ' gay festivals in the tea gardens, and the quaint groups of the Geisha. His Japanese pictures are painted in oil, water-colour, and pastel, and in all he has success- fully caught the characteristics of his subjects, and revelled in the quaint designs of the costumes, the head-dresses, and the beautiful, refined colour. A Japanese Belle, exhibited in the Water-Colour Society's Exhibition of 1894, and The Brown Kimono, shown at the St Louis Exposition in 1896, may be instanced as two remarkably clever pictures, among many similar subjects. 27 GLASGOW SCHOOL On his return to this country in 1895 Henry aban- doned Japanese subjects for a time, and completed some very capable figures, such as The Feather Boa — a young lady with veiled face and a fancy boa ; Portrait of a Toung Lady ; Fruiterer — a fruit shop with figures ; JSfell — a maiden's head against a window blind ; Lilac — children amongst the bright-hued flowers ; and Rowans — a group of children gathering the red berries in a woodland. The last-mentioned is an especially attrac- tive picture for masterly technique and the scheme of colour which it embodied. The picture was exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy of 1896, and purchased from there for one of the public galleries in the Colonies. During 1896 Henry devoted much time to the painting of portraits, and proved equally successful in depicting young children, women, or men. His realisation of character was more than mere facial delineation, and his capable brush work and his colour-schemes, fine in quality and in sympathy with the sitter, show his versatility. The portrait of Dr Campbell Black, one of his latest works, is remarkable for the qualities — por- traiture, design, and colour — looked for in all good work. The group. Children of Mr T. G. Arthur, is also another notable piece of portraiture. Two of the latest pictures which Henry has finished are Goldfish, a characteristic subject, and one in which he has evidently taken great delight. It represents a maiden with auburn locks and loose gown holding a bowl of goldfish in her hands. The other is Symphony, a young lady seated at a piano. The pictures are well designed and well painted ; but the charm of the work lies in the colour, beautiful in its full rich scheme and admirable for the rightness of its tonal qualities. Henry has always been one who is striving and experimenting, and the fine results he has secured — and they are not a few — are the outcome of continued 28 * GHOKGE HKXRV TiiH CiiiijjKEx OF T. G. Akthuk, Esi GEORGE HENRY Goldfish GEORGE HENRY hard work. His variety in range of subject, ex- pression, and colour-scheme, while individual, show the keenest observation of nature, and exhibit a joy in giving expression to his impressions through the medium of paint. E. A. HORNEL Amongst those Glasgow painters who have shown (especially in their later pictures) a desire to express pre-eminently the great charm of colour is E. A. Hornel. His pictures are panels, wherein the artist seeks to give expression to a motif which is entirely concerned with the beauty of colour in conjunction with a decorative quality of line or of spacing. His aim is to extract from nature the most delightful harmonies of colour, and in the combination of these to evolve schemes at once sensuous and beautiful. He is concerned more with the building up of spaces of colour, rich and full in quality, which, with a fine sense of com- position, results in a scheme that is highly decorative. This decorative feeling of Hornel's work, both as regards colour and form, is very complete, and fascinating beyond measure. The luscious quality of his paint, and the uncommon selection he makes of subject-matter for his pictures, give full play to his fancy for quaintness. Hornel was born at Bacchus Marsh, in Australia, some thirty odd years ago, but at an early age was brought to Scotland, the land of his parents, and settled in the picturesque town of Kirkcudbright, in the south of Scotland. His intention was to take up farming and return to Australia. This, however, he was prevented from doing by the death of his father, and, having a fondness for Art, he decided to turn his attention to the study of painting. In furtherance of this he went to Edinburgh in 1880 and entered the Art School in that city. After spending three years there, profit- less in a sense, he went to Antwerp and entered the 30 E. A. HORNEL atelier under Mons. Verlat. To use his own words, the time spent in Antwerp, some two years, was very dehghtful, everything being congenial, and the studies productive of good results. Verlat was a charming man, and a thorough professor of Art, with a great influence over his pupils. After leaving Antwerp, Hornel returned to his home at Kirkcudbright, and began to study and paint pictures out-of-doors, landscape subjects receiving most of his attention at first. Later, he found material for his fast - developing powers and sympathies among the field-workers in the pasture and woodlands which sur- rounded his home ; and in more recent years the rustic children, which his fancy clothes in old-world costumes, playing by river-bank and hedgerow, have given the inspiration for many charming pictures — instinct with moving colour almost riotous in its brilliancy. A characteristic feature of the country where Hornel lives is the rich autumnal tints of the trees and hedges, and the marsh-lands, and the beautiful efl^ects which come over the land and river at sundown — enchanting, indeed, to an artist, and giving inspiration for many themes. It was at Kirkcudbright that Hornel first met George Henry, who had been attracted to the countryside by these very beauties. A friendship was formed between the two artists that, later, proved that each had much in common, and they painted some large pictures in collaboration. One of the most successful of these was The Druids (1889), and another 'The Star in the East (1890). In the years 1890-91, at the Glasgow Institute Ex- hibition, Hornel was seen to great advantage. There, perhaps, became first evident the strong individuality of his work ; for, though he had exhibited in previous years, it was not until then that the strength of his work was fully realised. The pictures were entitled — Butterfies, Among the Wild Hyacinths, and The 31 GLASGOW SCHOOL Brook. All treated of children at play, the children being dressed in long old-fashioned gowns of many- coloured patterns and designs. The following year, 1892, Hornel essayed a larger and more ambitious work than usual, and in it was distinctly successful. Summer is its title, and the subject, colour, and treat- ment are quite characteristic of the painter. In the foreground of the picture is a young girl chasing butter- flies, while another girl is seated on the rising ground behind watching her companion, the cattle she is herding being allowed to wander among the trees and undergrowth ; while beyond these latter is seen a suggestion of distant fields and sky. The happy, joy- ous feeling of life and sunlight which permeates the whole work, the brilliant colour and broad handling — suggestive, yet thorough — show a picture of remark- able power deservedly bringing to the painter more than ordinary plaudits. After being exhibited in the Glasgow Institute, Summer was shown at the Walker Art Gallery, and the Liverpool Corporation, acting on the advice of the late Mr Philip Rathbone, wisely decided to acquire it for the permanent gallery in that city. During the year 1892 Hornel painted a number of interesting pictures, the subjects being of children playing among the wild flowers by stream and hedge- row ; and others, again, being of goats set in landscape compositions, and where colour and design continued to display his maturing power. Two of these — Children at Play and Landscape — he exhibited at the Glasgow Institute of 1893. The same year he had T'he Shepherdess and Among the Hyacinths in the Walker Art Gallery, which, with Summer^ made a splendid trio. In 1893 Hornel went with George Henry to Japan, and made a stay of eighteen months in the land of cherry-blossoms. The outcome of his sojourn there was seen in an exhibition of his pictures afterwards held in Glasgow. In these was evident an influence of the - 32 E. A. HORXKI. T„E K,te Klvek E. A. HORNEL best Japanese art — not a slavish imitation, but an influence in the matter of spacing and effect of design. His work showed how keenly sensitive his sympathies were to the adaptability of his surroundings ; how the quaint costumes of the people, the many incidents of children at play or grown folk at amusement, lent themselves to the individuality of his artistic expression. In these pictures he gives impressions which, apart from displaying his gifts as a colourist and designer and showing his appreciation for the art of the country, make us feel interested in the life and land of the Japanese. In the Institute, Glasgow, in 1895, Hornel exhibited but one picture, a small canvas of Children in a Wood, a piece of work fascinating for its colour harmonies. In the same galleries the following year he had. By the Burnstde and Silver and Hawthorn, two figure and land- scape compositions, full-toned, rich in colour, and quaint in design. In 1896 Hornel was also engaged in finishing his Japanese pictures to which I have referred, and others which were exhibited in the St Louis Ex- position ; he also completed a large canvas entitled The See-Saw, which was shown in the 1897 Glasgow Institute. 33 E WILLIAM KENNEDY In the course of his Art studies, Kennedy has always been striving to perfect his technique, both as regards draughtsmanship and in the use of paint. In his pictures he has ever sought for an ideal, and as the fancy of his mind led him to put on canvas some theme, it was never with a consciousness that he would do it of a surety. His pictures may seem to have been painted with perfect ease and spontaneity, but there is evidence to the critical that they could only have been painted after much serious study and observation. There is nothing of chance or of the accidental in them ; Kennedy has put aside pictures showing credit- able work, never to be taken up again save to be painted out entirely and the canvas used for another subject. His work, in many respects, is most character- istic of his personality, and in none more so than in the selection of subject-matter, and in the actual treatment. Of late years Kennedy has shown a fond- ness for painting military subjects, not the stereotyped "grand" battle scenes to arouse the interest of the crowd, but rather the incidents of soldier life in camp ' or on parade. To Kennedy the abstract is everything in the presentment of his subject, never dwindling to the trivial in detail of form or tone, or merely seeking after broken colour tints ; but endeavouring rather to get correctness of tone and a fulness in his colour-schemes. Hence the tonality of his work is always fine, whether he paints in a high or in a low key, showing with equal sympathy how careful he is to observe the beauties of nature with 34 WILLIAM KENNEDY truth, and to have a keen appreciation for their trans- ference to canvas by the means of paint. Kennedy has never been one of those painters who, with an abihty above the ordinary, manage to combine the artistic with the commercial. He has a natural antipathy to all that is academic, and it may be this feeling that leads him to paint themes quite apart from the popular ideal. His pictures show by their motif, colour -scheme, and workmanship, that he has endeavoured, in a most painter-like manner, to place on canvas that note of interest for some beauty in nature which at once appeals to the intelligent spectator. It is an intuitive feeling for the uncommon m nature as it is a personal characteristic to express that feeling in an uncommon manner. Take any of his more important pictures, and it impresses you as the work of a painter who has selected a theme or aspect of nature which is strongly in touch with his own thoughts, and is given to the public in his own way. He does this, not with a desire to be eccentric, but with a fully intelligent purpose running through it vi^hich commands attention and arouses the interest of genume picture lovers. A personality such as Kennedy's is never content to remain in a groove. As time developed knowledge and capabilities so his painting underwent a change, and from a fineness of technique and a wealth of detail, he has come to a breadth of handling and conception of form in conjunction with the value of tone that raise his work to a very high artistic standard Consequently his pictures please painters more than the public. Kennedy is a West of Scotland man, and has had the advantage of a thoroughly artistic training In Pans, where he studied, he was under the tuition of Bouguereau and Tony Robert Fleury. Later, he was with Bastien Lepage, Collin and Courtois, so that if distinguished masters go for anything, he has had the 35 GLASGOW SCHOOL best of what was going. When but student, Kennedy painted a small picture — a portrait of a young man — which revealed a grasp of character and an insight of life that was marvellous. Tentative in a degree, it held promise of better things to come from his brush, and he has realised its forecast. One might, with interest, enumerate many note- worthy pictures which Kennedy has done since ; but as the programme, like that of all the Glasgow men, is not complete, it will perhaps suffice to mention a few of the more notable which have been exhibited within the last half-dozen years. One of the first to attract the attention of artists and critics was Home- wards, a charming picture of calves being led home by a maid-servant. Its colour-scheme is delicate and very beautiful, quite in sympathy with the shades of evening. In composition the picture is excellent, and reveals in execution a keen sympathy with the quieter moods of nature. This picture was first ex- hibited in the Glasgow Institute, and later at an exhibition of modern pictures in the Grafton Gallery in 1894. Toil and Pleasure was painted in 1890, and shown at the Glasgow Institute. In 1893, in the same gallery, Kennedy exhibited a remarkable picture full of strong painting, colour, and effect, entitled The Canteen — Mid-day, a phase of soldier life in camp. In 1892, at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, he exhibited another strong work dealing with military life — Waiting to Mount Guard, and the picture of Homewards. In 1894 he was represented in the Glasgow Institute by Spring, a large canvas showing a green sward on which romped children ; but though much good work was evident in the picture, it was not a success. Stirling — Winter, exhibited in the Glasgow Institute in 1895, was a low-toned landscape, wherein the artist conveyed an exquisite impression of the fortified town under the dull light of a winter evening. The same year a very WILLIAM KENNEDY interesting picture, In Camp, Clearing up after Rain, was also in the same exhibition. A broadly-painted picture, The Deserter, was exhibited in Glasgow and at the London exhibitions. It is a large canvas whereon is depicted the captive being led to quarters by soldiers on horseback, while by the roadside are grouped field-workers who have stopped work to watch the runaway. The grouping, the strong rich colour, and the painter-like quality of the work are admirable. Harvesters was also shown in Glasgow and at the Grafton Gallery. It is a rich-toned landscape with the reapers at work in the fields, and suggests admirably the heat of a sultry day. In 1896 a small but rare work was exhibited in the Glasgow Institute under the title of The Harvest Moon. It was also exhibited in several American exhibitions. The subject is a group of thatched cottages, behind which rises the full moon of harvest-time ; but the great charm of the picture is its motif wherein the artist gave that subtle feeling of night, when the landscape takes on the bewitching light of the moon, and the atmosphere is filled with the sharp bite of an autumn evening. Besides these works, Kennedy has painted a number of water-colours, where colour handling and good design make one wish he used this most delightful of mediums more often. Pastel has also engaged his attention at times, and with it he has done very clever work, showing how well he understood the possibilities of the medium. Kennedy in all is distinctly personal and true to a long-conceived desire not to be hampered with anything academic. Note. — When the "Glasgow School" formed itself, as it were, into a corporate body, the president elected was William Kennedy ; but as regards other Art Societies or Associations, except being a corresponding member of the Munich Secessionists, Kennedy is not a member, and, judging by the outspoken manner of the artist on the question, he is entirely opposed to all that pertains to the academic. 37 JOHN LAVERY Intensely earnest in all the work he has done from the first picture he painted and exhibited, something like twenty years ago, Lavery has passed through one or two phases which amply prove how strong is his love for Art, and how remarkable is his technical power to-day, although it has not even yet received full recognition. His work is the outcome of natural gifts, in con- junction with continued application and careful study. He has ever looked for the uncommon and presented it in his work ; and, be it a portrait, a landscape, or a mere sketch of some incident in nature, devoid, perhaps, of subject interest, the point of selection is always evident, and the work made interesting by the artist's interpretation. There is movement either of life or colour in all he touches, and constant grace of composition. His colour-schemes are always charming and refined, and in some of his pictures he has em- ployed a primary note with unerring effect — introduced, in fact, with such subtlety that it has pronounced him gifted beyond doubt as a fine colourist. He has always shown capable powers of draughtsmanship, and dis- played an exceptionally painter-like quality of brush work in his pictures, imparting to them a feeling of spontaneity and elegance which make them attractive alike to an artist or to a lay picture lover. It would appear when looking at many of his pictures, particularly the more recently finished, as if they had been painted right off in one sitting, and had come from his brush without the slightest effort. Impressed and influenced by Whistler, and by the 38 JOHN LAVERV PoRTi^AlT R. B. Cunningham Gkaha.me, Esq. JOHN LAVERY work of Velasquez, it may be said that he has derived great benefit from both masters ; but it can also be added safely that it is an influence only, not an imitation. He retains an individuality that has always been evident in his work from the earliest, and not a transient style which is here to-day and away to-morrow, as his mind became impressed with this or that picture. Lavery was born in Ireland, but has long since been resident in Scotland, with the exception of a few years, beginning in 1881, when he studied in Paris. He w^as a pupil of Bouguereau and Tony Robert Fleury. In 1883, while studying at Julien's atelier, he painted Les deux Pecheurs, which he sent to the Salon, where it was hung on the line and purchased by a Parisian sculptor — both honours being highly appreciated by the young artist. Continuing from this first success at the Champs Elysees, he was represented every year at the Old Salon until he associated himself with the artists who contributed to the Salon, Champ de Mars, to which galleries he has since been a regular and prominent contributor. In 1887 Lavery painted a remarkably fine picture, entitled A T'ennis Party, which he exhibited first at the Royal Academy. The following year it was sent to the Salon, Champs Elysees, and there attracted the favourable attention of artists and critics, and was awarded a gold medal. Latterly the picture was in a Munich Exhibi- tion, from whence it was purchased by the authorities for the National Pinakothek. The subject of the Tennis Party was a very characteristic one for Lavery, as it offered a motif such as he delights to paint, and one wherein the prominent qualities of his style could be admirably demonstrated. He secured graceful pose and movement in the figures, with sparkle of sunlight and shadow in the artistic composition of his landscape. The picture shows lawn-tennis players on a green sward, with a number of people looking on — some seated, some standing, the whole group ablaze with sunlight against 39 GLASGOW SCHOOL a background of trees, heavy with foliage, in shadow. In colour the picture is very agreeable, being a scheme of warm-toned white with green. A long list of pictures by Lavery might be given, but mention need only be made of some of the more prominent, such as, T'he Bridge at Gretz, painted while he was staying at that quaint little French village, which was shown at the International Exhibition in Paris, and awarded a medal ; Ariadne, a study of a nude figure against the blue sea, very beautiful in style, line, and colour ; the large picture of the State Visit of Her Majesty to the Glasgow Exhibition, which proved a great success, and in the painting of which he had to make many portrait studies of the celebrities who were present at the function. The canvas for this picture is about fourteen by nine feet, and it is now placed in the city collection at Glasgow ; Dawn, i/\.th May 1568, an historical theme, is treated entirely different from the usual style of such subjects. It re- presents Mary Qiieen of Scots resting in the wood after the battle of Langside. Croquet, a party of young folks playing the game on a pleasure-ground overlooking the blue sea. Full in colour and the effect of sunlight. An Irish Girl was one of those graceful studies which he paints so artistically ; and from this time onward he de- voted more time to the painting of portraits, especially of ladies, for the pictorial presentment of which his artistic sympathies are so happily in keeping. In fact, it is perhaps more by his power of portraying fair women that Lavery has reached such a high place ; for, com- bined with his artistic knowledge, he has a refinement and power of selection that go far to make his portraits so delightful and gracious. Lavery has spent some time in Spain, and later has resided in Rome. He is a hard worker, and the long record he has already made of capable work will be further added to in the future. 40 I W. Y. MACGREGOR Although W. Y. MacGregor may not be so well known, either in person or by his work, as many others of the group, he is, in fact, the one who, by his personal influence and by his example, gave the chief impetus to the new movement in Glasgow. To him is due its gradually- developed effort to strive for new expression. The group of young painters who, early in the " eighties," were led by a common bond of sympathy to study together, owe much to him. For not only have they succeeded in painting pictures new in all artistic senses, compared with the standard that had hitherto been accepted, but they have made Art-history at the same time. MacGregor's influence was all for good. Through force of circumstances, such was his strength of character and the knowledge he had gained by study, that he was able to impress upon his intimates in Art the necessity that they should strive for greater things than had been the quest of the local "picture-man" up to that date: especially with regard to their choice of subject, and the selection of details to be set down ; and still more in the manner of working and the importance of "form" and " tone " as they exist in the works of the great masters. No doubt the acquisition of certain pictures by some West of Scotland collectors helped to the same end. For these paintings brought under the notice of the young painters new modes of expression and revealed new beauties ; and showed realised what they had been grop- ing for in the dark. But, despite the influence of foreign masters, they never lost sight of the value of personality 41 F GLASGOW SCHOOL in their work, and they strove to attain a higher level and achieve greater things than had ever been attempted by many of their predecessors. Naturally, they encoun- tered much opposition in the local Art-world ; and possibly MacGregor at first bore the brunt of the attack, but later, others of the group attracted a share of that censure and ridicule which greeted the Glasgow movement some fifteen years ago. MacGregor first studied painting with James Docharty, a Scots landscape painter whose work was somewhat in the style of Milne Donald. Later, he continued his studies with another landscape artist, the late Robert Greenlees, the then head of the local School of Art. But it is Professor Legros that MacGregor acknow- ledges as his real master. Under the tuition of M. Legros, for three years at the Blade School, London, he became greatly impressed with the arrangement of landscape composition, and learned to appreciate " style " and " dignity " in landscape. Throughout his more matured work there is constant evidence of the influence of this master. For in MacGregor's work we find that charm of design, that serious intention, and, above all, that indefinable " style," which is so marked a char- acteristic of M. Legros' paintings. After leaving the Slade School, MacGregor turned his attention to still-life, and painted some very fine pictures, one of Apples (exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1882) being especially memorable. He also painted many still-life landscapes, as he calls them. These he considers quite distinct from " pictorial " landscapes : in which opinion he again betrays the influence of Professor Legros. This point is an im- portant factor in MacGregor's work; and, to appreciate his landscapes thoroughly, one must also understand the motive of the painter. In all his later pictures one finds both dignity of style and fine passages of colour. Perhaps it is as a colourist that he is most 42 W. Y. MACGREGOR The Tl>\VERS OF VOKK W. Y. MACGREGOR noteworthy ; his sense of harmonious colour being the prominent feature in his work. One has but to recall The ^arry, which was, perhaps, not only the finest landscape at a recent exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy, but one of the finest of modern landscapes, to realise this. The accomplishment it shows and' the well-studied scheme of this picture can hardly be over-estimated. In 1885 the Royal Academy contained a picture of distinguished merit by this artist. This was entitled Crail, Fife: a village scene, with a group of figures the foreground and houses lying beyond ; all infused with strong sunlight, and painted with a full brush. This, with Apples, shown in 1882, appear to be the only pictures of W. Y. MacGregor which have been exhibited at Burlington House. On the Stour, a delightful river- piece, was shown first at the Royal Scottish Water- Colour Society, and later at the New English Art Club. The Carse of Lecropt was another distinguished work which was exhibited at the Glasgow Institute, where It elicited general admiration, and was ultimately pur- chased by a brother artist— a justly-deserved tribute to its merits. But it is time to hark back to the earlier influence of MacGregor upon the Glasgow men, and to insist upon It as a very important factor in their development. MacGregor formed a life-class, which met at his studio, and was attended by a goodly number. In mutual association there, the first practical inception of the new movement may be traced. Many of the younger men were brought into companionship with MacGregor, and were impressed by him with the con- victions he had acquired. The futility of remaining in the old groove was patent to them all, and the revolt was thus started against the ruling conventional style— if style it may be called. The old method of picture painting where "niggling" finish and the superfluous "added 43 GLASGOW SCHOOL facts " were accepted as the ideal of perfection, was abandoned. The younger men not only fought them- selves against the hackneyed conventions which ruled the hour, but gradually educated picture lovers to see things in a new light. It was a long struggle, but fought well, and has been crowned at last by success. Having thus spoken of Mr MacGregor's share in the foundation of the Glasgow School, we must return to his own work, and here we find, owing to ill-health, that he was unable for a number of years to exhibit anything. For a year or two he was in South Africa, but there he was not altogether idle, for he brought home with him many excellent water-colours and not a few studies — transcripts of street scenes and village life — full of character, and with even deeper interest than mere topographical associations. In 1890 MacGregor completed a large painting, which was exhibited at the Glasgow Institute under the title of The Mill Pond — a picture admirable in colour and tone. The same year he showed also A Street in Blomfontein, South Africa, one of the impres- sive pictures he brought back from that sunny clime. This picture has also been shown at Liverpool in 1892 and at other exhibitions. For a season MacGregor painted in Spain, and from that country came the subjects for some charming water-colours. Cambo, one of these, revealed a singu- larly high level of excellence. It was shown at the Institute in 1893, where he exhibited also T^he Basque Village, a work of noteworthy quality. The year 1894 showed him well represented at the Glasgow Institute by two pictures — one, a large canvas entitled A Tidal River, a study of shipping- houses and quays well seen under an evening effect ; and the other, a pastel of Shoreham, marvellously well done, and very true in colour. In 1895 the Institute Exhibition had A Basque Church and The Towing-Path, 44 I W. Y. MACGREGOR the latter a low-toned evening landscape, full of rich tones and quality of colour, admirably painted, and characteristic to a degree. In 1896 MacGregor had but one picture in the Glasgow Institute, a painting entitled A Rocky Solitude, strong in design and colour, but more satisfactory for the absolute feeling of the painter's motif which it conveyed. It was a small canvas, but full of much merit as a work of art. The next year he exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy two pictures of great merit, especially the larger canvas, entitled The ^arry, which might with safety be called the best picture he has painted, even though that be a somewhat decided statement to make when one considers in how many he has reached such a high standard artistically. In The ^arry there is everything to admire as a landscape. The composition is well thought out, and the colour-scheme very reticent yet extremely interesting, while the tonality is perfect. The tree forms and grouping, rising from an upland, and the quarry land receding into the valley of the mid-distance, take the eye over the distant stretch of country with the greatest delight to the beholder, and leave on the mind an impression of great harmony. The latest work which he has done continues to display more qualities of design and execution, which have been ever the characteristics of his work. MacGregor has used oil, water-colour, pastel, and pencil as mediums to express his impressions of the beauty of nature ; and to say that in whatever medium he essays he is always interesting, is to say little in appreciation, for his work, once comprehended, lives in the mind ever afterwards. 45 HARRINGTON MANN It is somewhat difficult to exactly define the par- ticular branch of art in which Harrington Mann has achieved the greatest success. He has designed cartoons for stained-glass windows, executed drawings in line and wash for reproduction, undertaken decorations for public halls, and has also painted quite a host of easel pictures — portraits and landscape, plein air figure-subjects and genre alike being undertaken with a ready brush. It is, however, more in regard to these latter he is spoken of here, as it is more by these he trusts to establish his claim to recognition by the Art-world. His early and long course of study at the Slade School under Professor Legros, and at Julien's, with Boulanger and Lefebvre as professors, gave him every chance of ac- quiring great command of crayon and brush. Coupled with these technical powers he possesses an intuitive faculty for design, and thus whatever he produces is always interesting from a craftsman's point of view. In colour he is not always uniformly successful ; but in many of his schemes for mural decoration and for stained-glass he gets excellent decorative masses, and his pictures display an almost perfect subtlety of harmony or contrast. Ulysses unwinding the Sea Nymp/is Veil was the first large picture which he exhibited (1885), and, though student- like, showed much power in treating a classical subject. It was the precursor of a number of pictures that, when completed and exhibited in successive years, proved him to be making progress and led up to the large picture, Attack of the MacDonalds at Killiecrankie, HARRINGTON MANN which was shown in the Royal Academy (1889) and in the Glasgow Institute of 1890-91. The pictures previous to this were Packing Fish at Staithes, The Swine-Herd, Scene from Rob Roy, In Arcady, and some portraits. In these the artist seemed to be concerned solely with a naturalistic representation of his subject, and, though he has since somewhat altered his style, striving more for decorative forms and the treatment of themes that lend themselves to it, the picture of The Attack of the MacDonalds at Killiecrankie will remain, undoubtedly, one of his best pictures. From the year 1892 portraits have mostly engaged Mann's attention. Though not his first efforts at por- traiture, they were the first wherein he sought decorative arrangement in conjunction with likeness. A group, Children of Mr Campbell Martin, the Misses Grischotti, and the portrait of a young lady in evening costume, have all the charms of composition and life-like realism. None the less successful are his portraits of men, of which Mr Joseph Cowan of Newcastle is a typical example : realisation of character and the broad treat- ment of face, figure, and accessory, at once artistic and attractive, characterise these. In search of subjects and study, Mann has made a few trips to Italy, and has given us many delightful pictures of Italian peasants and the sun-steeped landscape. A recent picture of his, A Song of Spring — a group of maidens, some seated, some standing, under the branches of blossoming trees, would suggest, by its treatment and decorative spirit, the influence of early Italian art, but so well is it carried out in design and colour that we admire it for its own sake. Before leaving the work of Mr Mann, reference should be made to one of the most important decorative schemes that he has done — a set of nine mural paintings on canvas for a girls' institute in a Dumbartonshire town. The subjects for eight of the panels illustrate 47 GLASGOW SCHOOL Scottish Song ; and the ninth, representing Woman's Work, contains over a score of figures engaged in the various employments of women. The decorative schemes, as well as the subjects depicted, are not less appropriate than the execution of the whole work is successful. 48 (I T. CORSAN MORTON From his first essays in Art Morton has striven for quaHty and style in his pictures ; and in his perception of nature, as in the actual treatment of his subject, he is broad and sympathetic. He has for the most part chosen his themes from landscape, but portraits have also engaged his brush, and in some instances he has varied his productions by still-life studies treated pictorially and made interesting by their colour or arrangement. His work is personal both in manner and in colour. The latter, though somewhat reticent, is none the less attractive for its sombre character, and it expresses rare sympathy with his choice of subject, which at one time may be a pastoral scene wherein figures and animals are introduced to give interest and movement ; or at another time, a riverside with tree stem and foliage enveloped in the hazy heat of summer ; or again, an effect at nightfall. In another picture, he is successful with the material drawn from some part of a picturesque village surmounted by the ruins of a castle, as in his picture entitled Past and Present. It is characteristic of the artist that he should be equally impressed by the solitude of a disused quarry, the low tones of a landscape under a stormy sunset, or the quiet repose of nature, as in his picture entitled Evening (shown at the Munich Secessionists and St Louis exhibitions), where the placid waters of a river reflect the evening light of the sky and the dark tones of the wood- lands. A water-colour that had much of the artist's in- dividuality in it was entitled The Valley of Desolation, 49 G GLASGOW SCHOOL exhibited in the Royal Scottish Water-Colour Society Exhibition, 1896. It was distinctive for the dignity of composition, the breadth of light and shadow, and the artistic quality of the workmanship. Many more pictures by Morton might be in- stanced, but those enumerated recall all the prominent characteristics of his work and of his choice of pictorial matter. His work is the result of a cultured perception of nature, especially in its quieter moods, and is re- corded in a sincere and unaffected manner. In his pictures there are admirable qualities of design, of mass and of line, and his themes are clothed in a colour- scheme reserved yet natural. Morton is a corresponding member of the Munich Secessionists, and has been a regular exhibitor at the society's annual exhibitions, and at many other Art exhibitions on the Continent and in America. 50 STUART PARK Stuart Park is as individual in his work and in his personality as any of the painters in the Glasgow group. Never does he load his canvas, but seeks rather to ex- press his motif and the realisation of his subject by unerring accuracy in each touch of the brush. Thus his pictures, when completed, have a delightful charm of spontaneity and freshness. Flow^ers and maidens' heads set against floral backgrounds have long been the choice of Park for his pictures ; and his endeavour has been to paint these with style and grace. His colour and right- ness of tone qualities are distinguishing features in his work, and whether the colour demanded by his subject be rich and full, or requiring a reserved palette, he is equally successful. He has a style of treating the back- grounds that is quite his own. The background never is conventional, but rather an arrangement of light and dark spaces, so placed in the canvas as to yield a decorative and yet unobtrusive effect which enhances the more prominent objects in the picture. He does not look for the trivial details of the flowers he paints, seeking rather for the broad truths of form and the delicate tints of colour, and for the subtle light and shade of leaf, petal, or stem. To single out a list of the pictures that Park has painted would be to waste space. His work is of such a character that words, and even reproductions, fail to convey a proper or even an adequate notion of them. Their beauty and charm can only be comprehended by intimacy. The colour is always good and the tone absolutely correct, the design decorative, and the treat- 51 GLASGOW SCHOOL ment as spontaneous as if the flowers had been breathed on to the canvas. These are qualities rarely found in the work of painters who confine themselves to such a limited choice of subject. Park has also painted portraits with success, but some pictures — of girls' heads surrounded by a decora- tive arrangement of flowers — are even more delightful. In these he displays great charm of composition and colour, and in the painting a freshness that is character- istic of all his work, with never a brush mark wasted, and never a " value " erring. To note the rightness of his flesh-tints in the face of country maidens, in juxtaposition to the brilliant hue of the flowers which surround them, is to comprehend how correct is his eye for colour and tone. In the picture, A Gipsy Maid — a maiden's head surrounded by poppies and leafage — this power of harmonising flowers and flesh was revealed in an unmistakable manner. ,52 JAMES PATERSON James Paterson was born in Glasgow, and has devoted his time to Art since 1877. His early instruction in drawing and painting were received at the School of Art in his native city, he at the same time taking private lessons from Mr A. D. Robertson, a well-known Art teacher in Glasgow, and the instructor of many local painters who have since achieved success in the Art-world. Paterson, however, was not altogether satis- fied with the facilities for study and training available at that time in Scotland, and in 1877 he proceeded to Paris, where he studied for two winters under Mons. Jacquesson de la Chevrence, and subsequently joined the atelier of Mons. Jean Paul Laurens. During the summer months he travelled and painted — mainly land- scapes—in England, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Egypt. He thus received, and still gives evidence — not only in his pictorial work, but also personally, and in the various contributions to magazines on Art and other topics — of the wide experience gained from this travelling. From an early date in his career, Mr Paterson has had his pictures accepted for public exhibition ; his first exhibited picture being in the Royal Scottish Academy of 1874. The following year his name appeared in the catalogue of the annual exhibition of the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. His work, however, did not receive the attention it merited, because of its unconventional treatment, and the daring schemes of colour he essayed. But though failing to secure the full applause of the general pubHc, — to whom he has 53 GLASGOW SCHOOL never specially appealed, — he gained the appreciation of his brother-artists. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1879, and was a frequent contributor to the Royal Society of British Artists during the time Mr Whistler was its guiding spirit. Mr Paterson joined the New English Art Club soon after it was started, and although no longer a member, having resigned in 1892, he still occasionally exhibits at its picture shows. In the two last exhibitions held at the Grosvenor Gallery he showed examples of his work, and has since been represented at the Grafton Gallery. He has also exhibited at the Society of Portrait Painters. To the Paris Salon since 1885, he has contributed a number of important land- scapes, and in the exhibition of 1890 at the Champs Elysees he had a notable picture entitled Winter in the Cairn, for which he received honourable mention. This picture was shown at the New English Art Club in 1889, where it deservedly received marked attention, and is now in Germany. It depicts a river with low- lying fields on either side, and by the water's edge are stunted trees, while the distance is composed of wooded uplands, and hills with snow-clad ridges. The sky with heavy masses of drifting cloud is a notable feature of the picture, and altogether, the painter successfully realised the feeling and dreary tones of winter. Since 1890 Mr Paterson has been a regular exhibitor at the principal exhibitions in Germany, his first picture being seen at the International Show of 1890, in Munich, where he was awarded a second gold medal for his picture called The Passing Storm, subsequently purchased by Mr J. S. Forbes, London. Like other supporters of the new movement in Glasgow, he went with the seceding Munich artists of the Association when the " Secession " was founded, becoming a corresponding member, and has regularly been an important exhibitor with the group, in their galleries in the Prinz Regenten Strasse. 54 1; -J ■i ■i ,1 JAMES PATERSON From the years 1889-90 Mr Paterson's most im- portant work starts, showing a more personal and matured quahty of artistic power and accompHsh- ment than any which he had hitherto accomplished. It has been on a larger scale as regards dimensions, and the success which he has achieved since then has been very pronounced, many of his pictures being acquired for public collections in the chief art centres of the Continent. He has exhibited many pictures, both figure and landscape, at the Glasgow Institute, but, like many of his fellow - exhibitors, has found the greatest appreciation from foreign critics, and that because of the charm of colour and theme, and the realisation of the poetical side of nature which his works display. 55 GEORGE PIRIE George Pirie, in the selection of his subject, shows him- self separate from all the other painters in the Glasgow group except Crawhall. These two, as a rule, confine their artistic labours to the painting of animal life. Pine first started the particular bent of his art sympathies by studying and sketching the animals which were brought in to the local market for sale. He studied at the Slade School, and later in Pans, at Tulien's, under Lefebvre and Boulanger. Many of his pictures have been exhibited at the principal Art galleries of the Continent and in America, and have always been well received. r i. u Pirie's technique has always been of a thorough character, even to the extent of being almost over- conscientious. His later pictures, however, display a better method of brush work, and with this advance of technique has come a finer sense of design and colour. . In his earlier pictures the subjects chosen were mostly of dogs and horses, but now he affects a greater variety of subject, and paints with a keen sense of appreciation and insight the different incidents characteristic of the lives of other animals, as well as birds One of these pictures shows a hen seated in her nest surrounded by young chicks, painted with marvellous truth, bearing witness to the keen observa- tion of the life of the birds. _ Pirie's colour for some years was rather negative, his pictures being painted in a low tone ; but recently this tendency has been discarded, and, as in the case of his 56 GEORGE PIRIE technique, he has gone for fuller colour, pitching his tones in a higher key. The result is a great improve- ment, for he still retains an excellent tonal quality throughout. In 1891 Pirie paid a visit to Texas, and there found many new themes for his brush. All these Texan pictures are interesting ; and a point worth noting is that at this time he worked in a new method — namely, painting in oil on paper — the result being very successful. Of the more important is Weariness, a study of a dog in its kennel, in which the clever draughtsmanship of the artist was seen by the accurate manner in which the dog, stretching itself, with hind legs extended, was placed on the canvas. In another picture, of a group of hounds at rest in their kennel, the different attitudes of the dogs called forth his finest drawing and painting. A large canvas, The Chase, has many points of artistic power ; such, for instance, as the realisation of movement in the subject, which is a cock in anxious chase after a mouse. Pirie's work, though in a sense limited in the selection of subject, is such that it commands attention from the painter-like manner in which it is done. 57 H ALEXANDER ROCHE The work of Alexander Roche is always intensely personal, with a rare feeling for the beauty of colour, and rendered with a peculiarly charming grace of line. He looks for the picturesque and finds it, placing on his canvas the figure or landscape which attracts him, in a manner that records only the romantic aspect of his subject. With a keenly sensitive tempera- ment, he chooses his " motif" with an almost unconscious inspiration, and in whatever medium he works displays equal power. His pictures are very broadly painted with a full brush, and at great speed. I have watched him start on a pochade panel to depict a fishing-boat leaving the harbour, or a group of quaint, old, red-tiled houses, overshadowed by the centuries-old village kirk. It was quite remarkable to observe how swiftly he set down the broken colour and play of light and shadow, or how exactly he caught the character which made his subject a picture. This proves him to be a close student of nature, for, with apparent ease, he discovers pictorial material even in what at first glance would seem to be a most unalluring landscape. Roche was born in Glasgow a little over thirty years ago, and studied at first in the local School of Art. In 1 88 1 he resolved to go to Paris, where he entered Julien's atelier, and studied there under Boulanger and Lefebvre. Later, he worked under Gerome, and at the end of two years returned to Glasgow, where he had the misfortune to be burnt out of his studio. This sent him back to Paris again for a time, after which he settled 58 V J ALEXANDER ROCHE in Glasgow and resided there until quite lately, when he took up his abode in Edinburgh. A large picture, which he painted soon after coming back from Paris, represents, life-size, a group of school children sitting on a bench, and learning their lessons outside the school-house. This is in a cool grey scheme of colour, and most thoroughly painted. For some years he continued to paint figure-sub- jects ; but, not caring for studio work, left the city and its busy life for a picturesque village some few miles out of Glasgow, where he painted some exceedingly beautiful pictures — those which he himself confesses "I like best." His Good Kitig Wenceslaus, painted in 1886, is, perhaps, best known of his earlier work. It is a picture familiar to London picture lovers, as it was hung at the New English Art Club Exhibition in 1890, at Humphrey's Mansions, Knightsbridge. The subject is taken from the old Christmas carol ; the moment depicted being when the page-boy, laden with fuel, follows in his master's footsteps. Decorative in its plan, and lovely in colour, it is a singularly charming example of the newer style of treating a romantic theme. In a long snow-covered landscape, the page — a boy in modern knickerbockers — is plodding through the snow ; in the distance, in medieval dress, with halo enriched by actual gold, is King Wenceslaus among the trees. Other pictures of this year are the Hill-top, an upright picture of a wood- land, with the foliage low in tone; and the Shepherdess, which was hung at the Royal Academy, 1887. Follow- ing these, in 1888, came Miss Loo; and another figure- subject, Tete-d-tete, in 1889. A new experience in the artist's life, a yachting cruise round the West Coast of Scotland, yielded a large number of very interesting sketches of the sea, of the lovely islands, and the busy nautical life of the Clyde. These accumulated much new experience which, doubtless, 59 GLASGOW SCHOOL influenced his next important work — The Clyde. This painting represents a scene on the Firth, with fishing- boats, merchant shipping, and steamers. In the distance is a range of hills ; the water is dark toned, rippled by a stormy wind. This delightful picture is a wonderfully effective and characteristic impression of the life of the great river. It was exhibited at the Paris Salon, where it not only gained officially " Mention Honorable," but was bought by a French artist. A trip to Italy, undertaken for the purpose of study- ing the contents of the many galleries and churches in that country, led to a second visit, when Mr Roche settled for a time among the Sabine Hills, and painted a number of delightful pictures. The subjects of these were chiefly Italian peasants, with various incidents of their life and customs. The vividly-coloured dresses of the women, and the religious processions and other picturesque customs of the natives, proved to be just the right material to bring out all the painter's artistic sympathies, and to demand his full powers. After leaving Italy, he painted A Scottish Town, a poetic transcript of a village seen underneath the glamour of twilight. Exquisite and thoughtful in conception and execution, it found a sympathetic owner in Liebermann, the great German painter. A powerful work, next in order, was exhibited simply as a Landscape. It showed a fine theme well carried out a river winding through flat pastoral lands with cattle, and a finely-conceived sky with heavy masses of clouds, noteworthy and exceptionally well painted. About this time he started the Idyll, a semi-classical figure and landscape subject. This was exhibited at the Grafton Gallery in 1892, and more recently in Edinburgh. It was finally acquired for the permanent gallery of Adelaide, New South Wales. The best part of 1892 was spent by Mr Roche m studying and painting the life of the old-world fishing- 60 ALEXANDER ROCHE villages round the East Coast of Fife — a district abounding in picturesque subjects. One of the pictures he painted there is a wonderfully vivid presentation of the hardy life these deep-sea fishermen lead. It is entitled Fishers, and shows a large boat leaving the harbour under a heavy wind and rolling sea. Standing on the quay are many women-folk ; and beyond these lie the red-tiled roofs of the village. This also has been purchased for the National Gallery at Berlin. Still later, the painter made a tour through many old-fashioned English villages, and the impressions he has recorded of these show his great versatility. One is especially notable — The Red Lion Inn, a quaint old hostelry with a market cross hard by, and a flock of sheep in the foreground. In 1894 Roche devoted most of his time to portraits of ladies, in which he displayed another aspect of his artistic power. To 1895 belongs a portrait of Mrs Roberts, a work that is admirable alike for its colour and for its arrangement. This same year pro- duced also T/ie Window Seat, a group of young girls seated in a window overlooking a river. It is delicate in its colour-scheme, and most pleasantly composed ; the whole being marked by great freedom of brush work. One of the latest pictures he has painted is Flora, which has for its motto the lines from the old ballad "Tell me, shepherds, have you seen My Flora pass this way." In it there is continued proof of his advance. His more recent pictures are almost entirely portraits, which display singularly painter-like qualities of good colour and treatment, and a keen perception of character, and marked with the same charm of composition that is evident in his subject-pictures. In short, Alexander Roche is always artistic in the fullest sense of the word. 61 R. MACAULAY STEVENSON Like other painters who have shown more than common artistic abilities, Macaulay Stevenson has displayed a consistent evolution in his work from the tentative period to the style in which he is now working. He has developed naturally his sympathies and his power of selection both in subject and in the motif which pervades his picture. In his earlier pictures he chose some one or other point of interest that made one feel that in time he would accomplish more than ordinary work in landscape painting. He has fulfilled this presentiment to a remarkable degree, and he has by no means finished what he has to say. Stevenson's intensity of feeling, and his strong desire to express with paint his impression of the beauties of nature is that of the poet-painter, and at the same time in his pictures one is impressed by the true feeling of an ardent student who has studied nature long and care- fully ; for he displays both the feeling for poetry and truth to nature in his work — qualifications which show the difference between the artist who studies nature and imbues his work with personal feeling ; and one who relies upon a superficial knowledge of nature and is charmed with the glamour of smudgy painting. This latter produces at best only surface work, and fails to impress the intelligent mind. Stevenson received his artistic education in Glasgow, the place of his birth. His real progress is, how- ever, the outcome of long and serious study out-of- doors, for though he had been intended to follow a profession which entailed a knowledge of form and R. MACAULAY STEVENSON drawing, he forsook the rigorous conventionality entailed in the studies which would have been of use to him for his proposed sphere of life, and in their stead saturated his mind with nature's effects, colour, and forms. It is by this love for the poetic side of his surroundings that he arrests our attention by his landscape. For many years he has lived away from towns, preferring to be constantly in touch, as it were, with the material for his pictures. His present home is situated in a beautiful country-side rich in pasture lands and woodlands, with a loch near by, which has many little brooks filtering into it through borders of rushes and undergrowth. Here he derives the themes and sentiment for the pictures that by-and-by charm us when we see them in the cities, for in every one of them he retains the poetic inspiration of his surroundings — whether they depict a landscape suffused with the noon-day sun or permeated with the silvery light of a grey day, or in the romantic shades of eventide, and under the witching effect of moonlight. Stevenson is a hard worker, but a slow producer ; for he is sincere in striving for the most satisfactory results, and his method or style in the use of paint is such as does not allow of rapid finish, though many of his pictures at first glance seem to have been easily done. Within recent years a well-deserved recognition has been paid to his work by the authorities of many of the principal exhibitions of the Fine Arts on the Continent. To take more recent successes, in 1893 he was awarded a gold medal at Munich for a distinguished canvas entitled Moonrise. In the following year his Fairies Pool was acquired by the German Government for the National Gallery at Berlin, and he received a similar honour in the selection of his picture, A Nocturne, for the National Gallery of Bohemia. During 1894 he had a picture also entitled Moonrise, purchased for the Municipal Gallery of Barcelona. From the exhibition at Ghent in 1895 the Belgian Government acquired for the National 63 GLASGOW SCHOOL Gallery at Brussels his Dream of Twilight — an exquisitely conceived landscape. For the town's collection, Weimar has chosen his Dewy Morning on the River Forth — a charming picture, full of artistic quality in its present- ment of light and fine colour. Besides these honours Stevenson has also received others, making, in all, a truly remarkable record. I 1 64 GROSVENOR THOMAS Was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1856, but at an early age was brought to England, and educated at Warminster. But although he soon developed a leaning towards pictorial Art, he did not commence to paint until 1886. He has travelled a great deal, and was for some years settled in South America. Leaving that country, he came back to England and started in the Fine Art trade, dealing chiefly in Japanese curios. About 1885 he settled in Glasgow ; and it may be said that it was here he received the first impressions of his present-day Art, and at the same time came under the influence of the new movement which the younger painters in Glasgow were then developing. Much impressed by Japanese Art, especially as seen in its colour-prints, possibly he owes something to Japan. But Thomas' work, both in selection of subject and treatment of theme, evidently shows more sym- pathy with the works of the French Romanticists. At the same time, there is much in it that is personal, showing him to be an ardent student of nature, who selects his material with an artistic perception that denotes the true painter. In colour, Mr Thomas' pictures are always ex- cellent ; and particularly in keeping, as regards scheme, with the motif which pervades it. I have seen him present on canvas a very simple composition of a clump of trees on an upland, rising dark against an evening sky broken with the many colour-tints of the gloaming hours ; and again, an old mill by the river- 65 GLASGOW SCHOOL side, with the sparkling lights and shadows of the early noonday giving notes of colour, brilliant and fascinating to a degree, subjects so simple that they seemed unlikely to give such successful results. The first important picture by Mr Thomas was one entitled Dawn, painted in 1890, and purchased the same year from the Munich Exhibition for the collection of Prince Lintpold of Bavaria. The following year, 1892, picture lovers and painters were greatly charmed by The Old Mill on the Luggie, which Mr Thomas first exhibited in the Glasgow Institute, and subsequently in the principal galleries on the Continent. It was a very typical work, im- pressing one for the absolute correctness and fine feel- ing of its colour and tone, although the material from which the picture was composed was uninteresting. The same year saw from his hand a large canvas which was exhibited at the Royal Academy under the title of Evening. The picture was a notable one, showing much power in the conception and actual painting ; as here again the delighful simplicity of the artist's selec- tion of theme was strongly evident, the picture showing a heavy group of trees on rising ground by a river- side, which reflected in the foreground the dark shadows of the trees. Mr Thomas has never been a very prolific producer, but within the last four years he has been represented more regularly at the exhibitions both in England and on the Continent ; and his work lately has been of larger dimensions, more full in colour, and more ver- satile in subject. In some of his recent pictures he treats of the sea with a wonderful mystic charm, whether it be when his picture showed either the busy feeling and movement of the wind-swept ocean or the quiet placid waters of some haven. He has also painted studies of flowers very successfully, in which the really beautiful colour is their first and foremost charm. Next 66 GROSVENOR THOMAS on the list of pictures comes Canal by Moonlight, with its quiet tones and feeling of serenity, and The Mill, Evening, bought for the permanent collection at Weimar. The Haunted House, a small canvas painted in 1895, is a charming picture. Its subject, an old mansion surrounded by trees, is treated in a very subdued scheme of colour, and with an appropriate feeling. It is noteworthy as embracing many of the artist's characteristics. The last of the series of pictures by Thomas which need be mentioned here is The White House on the Hill, one of the most effective the artist has painted. 67 E. A. WALTON The work of E. A. Walton has always been strongly individual. His efforts have been from the first markedly naturalistic ; and in the choice of that which he paints he has taken a wide range of subject. He is remarkably versatile, both in actual treatment and in the various mediums by which he conveys his impressions ; and the successful issue of the many pictures he has painted is eminently demonstrative of the breadth of his con- ception and of his power to give expression to it. In some of his pictures he has chosen for the subject an expanse of sky with heavy clouds casting shadows over the fields ; or, at another time, a riverside with placid waters, and cattle grazing on the meadow lands ; or, again, some girlish figure, with a rich background of luxuriant foliage, through which the sunlight filters, making fanciful patterns with light and shadow on face and figure. Again, his subject may be a farmstead or picturesque village, with groups of trees, cattle or sheep, or farm-labourers giving life and animation to the scene. In his earlier work, Walton confined his atten- tion to landscape pure and simple, and the first large picture he exhibited (1882) was November, a picture which, while characteristic of the Highlands of Scot- land, with rugged pastures, birch trees, and woodlands under a strong sky effect, was subservient in point of subject to the boldness of treatment and full scheme of colour. His previous work showed a fine feeling for landscape painting ; but this picture of November displayed the maturing power of the artist. For the next two or three years he continued to advance, and in 1884 he 68 E. A. WALTON completed Berwickshire Uplands, wherein was style and distinct personality. The landscape of rising ground, mostly in shadow, was seen against the slcy, where the expanse of blue was broken and made interesting by heavy rain-clouds. From this period Walton was forming a more individual style of treatment in landscape, com- bining with a charming feeling for true colour the painter-like qualities of tone values and form, thus making his work distinctive. While this development of his landscape painting was evident, it was also seen that Walton had more than ordinary abilities for portraiture, and though some of the first of the series he exhibited in the eighties did not touch the same artistic level of his landscape, he gave ample proof, by some of his work immediately following, that finer things were to be expected of him in this branch of the painter's art. For some years, from when he painted Portrait of a Girl (exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1889 '■> ^ well-painted picture of a young girl with flowing locks and loose blouse, seated on a chair, the colour rich yet reserved and in fine harmony with the subject), he has continued to paint portraits and to advance with notable consistency, till now doing work that has the highest virtues of portraiture. Technically and in the realisation of character he has shown the most marked progress, for though he has always been a capable craftsman and observant of the character and truth of what he painted, his present work has more charm in the manner it is done, emphasis- ing, as it were, the endeavour of the artist to get a Tightness of colour, tone, and technique, than in a mere contentment with the pleasing aspect of pictorial matter. There is nothing limited in Walton's abilities to express his motive well, and his versatility is at one with his theme. Some of the most delightful water-colours of modern times have come from his brush. In water- colour painting he shows much sympathy with the GLASGOW SCHOOL proper treatment of the medium, has the essential quah- ties of accurate draughtsmanship, and possesses a spontaneity of breadth and quality in putting down a wash. In his earlier drawings he finished his work more according to accepted conventions, covering the whole surface of the paper ; but in his later aquarelles he has invented the design and imbued his selection with a more personal style. In fact, he selects his subject, a roadway with figures, a group of animals, or a pastoral, with especial reference to the medium, as he now treats it. In some drawings the surface of the paper (of varied tints as required) is left uncovered, and the drawing is carried through with great dexterity and truth and with the least touch and detail, consistent with the motif of the picture. In water-colour the fascination of Walton's later style is well exemplified in the drawings as Hyde Park, 'The Goats, Kensington Gardens, and many transcripts of nature in and around London and its suburbs. Phyllis, a figure-subject, also showed the peculiar charm of Walton's water-colours, the decorative design, good colour, and interesting treatment being exquisite. In pastel, Walton has executed many charmingly artistic pictures; and his employment of it is as success- ful, in the degree limited by the medium, as many of his paintings in oil or water-colour. Walton's work has ever a fresh and delicious quality of atmosphere and light that shows how keen is his perception of those phases of nature he loves to paint. A quality pervading his work is that of selection ; never is he commonplace. Be his theme landscape or figure- subject, he conceives it in a decorative manner, and through it there is that dominant feature of the artist's mind in close sympathy with nature. 70 OTHER PAINTERS OF THE GLASGOW SCHOOL Among Glasgow painters not noticed in the foregoing pages are some very able men, whose work not only touches a high level of artistic excellence, but has often a distinctly personal charm. Although James Torrance has painted many pictures that may well be accepted for their more than ordinary artistic merit, they are seldom seen by the public, or even by his fellow - painters. He has a natural antipathy to the usual picture exhibition, and so his pictures are rarely sent to galleries. Yet his work is most interesting and proclaims him a gifted artist. He has great accomplishment both as a draughtsman and as a painter. In many of his subject -pictures, as well as in a series of admirable illustrations which he has executed for various books of " Fairy Tales," he displays a rare and fanciful imagination. His best work, however, is to be seen in his portraits, wherein the character and the likeness of the sitter are enhanced by the quality of the work and the charming colour- scheme. His studies of figures or females' heads set against backgrounds of leaves and flowers are quaint, but yet unaffected in design, and the most refined in colour. In the work of J. Reid Murray one can trace the strong vigorous technique due to his studies in Antv/erp ; but the chief feature of it — colour — is more distinctly the outcome of his long study in the open air, especially in the autumn, when the woodlands are rich in brilliant tints and the fields and undergrowth reveal bright-hued 71 GLASGOW SCHOOL colour. In many of his pictures he has chosen land- scape in strong sunlight, where the highest notes of colour are essential ; while in others he shows apprecia- tion for the lower tones of a grey day, or the poetical feeling of the evening when the moon rises over the land. His realisation of each varying effect, no matter the colour-scheme, is always harmonious. Murray has been a frequent exhibitor at many of the principal Art ex- hibitions in Europe, and has gained much praise for his work, only recently the Munich International Jury awarding him a second gold medal. He has been one of the few who have been invited to contribute work to the circle " Les XIII." of Antwerp. He is an earnest worker, and his pictures have always some distinct artistic feature, whether it be of subject, colour, or effect. William MacBride is another landscape painter who revels in the bright tints of autumn ; but far more charm- ing are his peaceful pastorals, where figures or sheep in sunlight and shadow are placed so artistically. His work is painter-like in its conception. Allied to Reid Murray and MacBride in the subjects he paints is Harry Spence, who has for the most part painted land- scapes, though he has also produced pictures wherein figures played an important part, and he has also essayed portraits. His best work is a combination of figure and landscape, and in many pictures using such a motif he has been most successful. 72 POSTSCRIPT A BODY of men, working as we have described these men to be, bonded together by a common sympathy and hoping for a future for their efforts, must also in some measure have their minds exercised as to what is being done in the matter of the training of the younger artists and students who are preparing to carry on this work, and to be ready in turn to receive ideas, not as traditions, but as indications. Happily, the Glasgow School of Art is an institution keenly alive to what is going on about it. Some of the more notable members of the Glasgow School of Painters are governors of the School of Art, visitors to its Life Classes and examiners of its work. Furthermore, the School, by its successes, has proved its capacity for turnmg out a set of young workmen who may m time become artists, because they have been students • but who are at least craftsmen, with a sense that although they are painters by election, they can only become artists by selection. 73 K