Artists at Work: images of the artist out in the field.
A CDV photograph by J Humphrey, 123 King Street, Kilmarnock.
For the Victorian tourist, sketching was a much-encouraged accomplishment. Above is a CDV (Carte de Visite) photograph portrait of three people keen to show their tourist credentials. He, in the middle has his walking stick, while she seated to his left holds a pair of binoculars. A fir cone and leaves are scattered on the studio floor, the backdrop suggesting a rural scene with trees. And he on the left is poised with his pencil, ready to capture the scene in front of him in his sketchbook.
Professional photographers seemed keen to exploit the image of the tourist sketching, without realising, I suspect, that their medium would soon render unnecessary any artistic skill when it came to capturing the scene. Photography is much simpler and quicker.
Below is another CDV titled "Maclean's Cross, Iona", by G.W. Wilson.
Maclean's Cross, Iona, by G.W. Wilson, Aberdeen.
Two boys peer at the work of a kilted visitor to the island. Iona was very much on the tourist route by the time this photograph was taken (c1880).
Here is another image using the same recipe.
St Martin's Cross, Iona, from a stereoview, photographer unknown (possibly GWW again).
It is of another site on Iona, St Martin's Cross, and the boy depicted without shoes might well be local.
Women were encouraged to develop the skill, and tuition could be a serious business, as this image, titled "Statue Gallery, Edinburgh" shows.
"Statue Gallery, Edinburgh." A stereoview in the 'Waverley Series.'
Queen Victoria was quite prepared to get out her sketchbook, especially when in the Highlands. She was taught by a number of artists, including Richard Westall and Edward Lear ( of nonsense poems fame), but her main tutor in later life was William Leighton Leitch, who himself painted a number of Scottish views (see my pages on art in northern Scotland for three possible examples).
Queen Victoria sketching at Loch Callater, from the Illustrated London News, 1880.
Here are three more women painting, though one is hiding modestly behind an easel. An interesting watercolour, almost certainly from Dalzell House, Motherwell.
Three ladies painting at Dalzell House, Motherwell. Artist unknown.
An inscription on the back reveals that the lady on the left is 'Sybel Hamilton', the one in the middle, barely visible, 'Katie Stevesns, a cousin', and the one on the right 'Mrs Campbell, M.H's sister.' 2nd Baron Hamilton, Gavin, married Sybil.
Here is the true Scottish professional at work.
J. Mac Whirter, R.A. A postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons, in the R.A. Series.
John MacWhirter was born in Edinburgh, and ran away from his job in a bookshop to take up art. He eventually settled in London, but his finest work was essentially as a painter of landscapes, many of them Scottish.
Who knows whether the image below is of a professional, or of an amateur? Indeed who knows who J.G(orC).K was (the monogram bottom left)? But it is an attractive watercolour of an artist at work in the Highlands.
I have an interesting, later image of a painter at work.
An artist painting in the Highlands.
Inscriptions on the back suggest this is a "Sketch of James Cowie by Henderson Blyth." I like to think it is by Henderson Blyth, but I am pretty sure it is not of James Cowie. There are not many portraits, either painted or photographic of Cowie, but those that I have seen do not resemble this man portrayed here. Far more likely is Sir William Gillies. Blyth accompanied Gillies on a number of drawing trips in the NW Highlands after the war.
But nothing from my collection gives me more pleasure than this watercolour drawing of an artist at work deep in the southern Highlands near Callander, at the Falls of Bracklinn. He is barely visible on his perch....
Artist at the Bracklinn Falls, painter unknown.