Exhibited RSA 1893, No 332

Born Bradford 1847, died Portobello 1922. Painter in oil and watercolour; figurative subjects. Son of a Dunfermline businessman who settled for a time in Yorkshire. At an early age he returned with his father to Dunfermline. Settling in Edinburgh, he spent a short time working for the publishers, Nelson. Although at this time he had had no regular training, he had received some tuition from a French artist. Subsequently attended the RSA Life Schools where he must have made rapid progress for his first exhibit at the RSA was in 1873, when he was still only 26. There followed an annual show of his work until 1916, a total of 203 paintings. In his earlier years he found his subjects mostly in Scotland but as he became older his subjects became more frequently Continental. Painted workers in the field and at the fringes of the sea going about their labours rather than the depiction of any great drama, and portrayed the innocent joys of childhood, the affinity between the very old and the very young, especially when working in the open air together on a common task. Used the same family as models for many of his paintings. Elected ARSA 1882, RSA 1889. Represented in National Gallery of Scotland, Dundee Gallery, Glasgow Gallery among others.