Kirkcudbright
Like most other areas of Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century, Kirkcudbright, the town and the county, had its quota of local amateur artists, who painted local views or subjects, as well as the occasional touring professional artist attracted by the county's landscape qualities. The development of the railway system in the 1860s considerably improved the area's transport links with the rest of Scotland, at a time when the local population was falling so that there was no shortage of accommodation or studio space in Kirkcudbright for any artist wishing to work here.
Kirkcudbright's particular artistic story can be traced back to
the remarkable Faed family of artists from Gatehouse of Fleet. All
the family showed artistic talent, but Thomas and John, were the
most successful coming to prominence in Edinburgh and latterly
London, from whence John returned to Gatehouse in the 1880s. Their
painting is technically first rate, well-finished and generally
concerned with Biblical, historical or literary narrative subjects,
often with a moral comment.
In Kirkcudbright, the artistic achievements of the Faeds were
recognised and celebrated in their own lifetime. Their financial
success must have encouraged the families of talented younger
artists, that a career as an artist was a viable option. When the
young Edward Hornel left Kirkcudbright to train in Edinburgh, his
uncle urged him to 'try to put Tom Faed in the shade'. To the young
Hornel, the Faeds must have provided an inspiration, and they
certainly brought a distinction to art in the local community. The
exact nature of the relationship between John Faed and the younger
group of Kirkcudbright artists is as yet unclear for want of
sufficient evidence. Arguably Thomas and John Faed's work
represented the 'establishment' style which the younger generation
of Scottish artists, inspired by the realism of artists such as the
Belgian, Bastien-Lepage, were anxious to move away from. However,
what evidence there is in correspondence suggests John took an
avuncular interest in the new generation of artists, and he was
willing to become the first President of the Kirkcudbrightshire
Fine Art Association in 1886. The Association was the first public
manifestation of Kirkcudbright's artistic community, and after its
first exhibition in 1886 it went on to hold a further three annual
exhibitions, showing work not only by he local artists, but also by
visiting 'Glasgow Boys'.
In the late 1880s, Edward A Hornel, W S MacGeorge, Thomas B
Blacklock and William Mouncey (Hornel's brother-in-law) were the
principal local artists. Hornel was born in 1864, at Bacchus Marsh
near Melbourne, Australia. In 1866 he returned with his family to
Kirkcudbright, where the Hornel family had been resident from the
early 18th century. In 1880 he enrolled in the Edinburgh School of
Art. In 1883 he exhibited his first painting at the annual Royal
Scottish Academy exhibition, and in the same year enrolled at the
Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Antwerp under the teaching of
Prof. Charles Verlat..
MacGeorge was born Castle Douglas in 1861. Although three years
older than Hornel, he studied with him at the Trustees Academy,
Edinburgh. The school's records suggest that MacGeorge was the
better painter, as he won a South Kensington Medal. The two young
artists were on close enough terms for MacGeorge and Hornel to
continue their studies in Antwerp together, along with fellow
Edinburgh student, William Walls.
Blacklock was born in Kirkcudbright in 1863. He too attended the
Trustees Academy at this time. In 1882 his work was first exhibited
in the annual exhibition of the
R.S. A. Unlike MacGeorge and Hornel, he chose to continue his
training through entering the Life School of the R.S.A. in
1883.
Mouncey was a house painter and decorator by trade, but a keen
amateur artist. He was sufficiently successful in business to
devote his time to painting later in life and first exhibited at
the Royal Scottish Academy in 1888. By the time of his premature
death in 1901, his ability as a landscape painter was recognised
nationally.
In 1885 Hornel returned to the family home in Kirkcudbright at 18
High Street, and established a studio at 21 High Street, the Old
Custom House. In the autumn of the same year he met the artist
George Henry in Glasgow, and the two became close friends. Henry
was already one of the 'Glasgow Boys' and introduced Hornel to the
group. The 'Boys' originated in the late 1870s as a group of
Glasgow based artists who rejected the then orthodox approach to
painting, which tended to depict subjects in a romantic,
sentimental or moralistic way. During the summer months, the
artists would disperse to different locations around Scotland, and
with Hornel's influence, Kirkcudbright became a favourite location.
From 1886, and for the next 7 or 8 years, Hornel and Henry worked
closely together in Glasgow and Kirkcudbright, sharing each other's
studios, together with James Guthrie in 1886 and 1887. Henry's most
innovative and controversial painting Galloway Landscape , with its
echoes of Gauguin's Synthetism, was painted just outside
Kirkcudbright in 1889.
In 1893 Henry and Hornel visited Japan together. On his return,
Hornel's Japanese exhibition was heralded as "the most magnificent
display of a single artist's genius ever bought together in
Scotland", and he was recognised as the new leader of the Glasgow
School.
Hornel's success as an artist in the 1890s allowed him to purchase
Broughton House, a fine 18th century town house in Kirkcudbright
High Street, where he lived with one of his sisters.
From the 1890s onwards, artists were drawn to Kirkcudbright by
Hornel and the growing reputation of the town and surrounding coast
and landscape as a first class painting ground. Some were summer
visitors only, but others became permanent residents, such as
William Robson, from 1904 and Charles Oppenheimer from 1908. Robson
had previously worked in the artists' and writers' colony on Capri.
Oppenheimer came from Salford, where his father was in business as
a craft tile manufacturer. Both men became key figures in the
town's artistic community. Jessie M King, a recent graduate from
Glasgow School of Art was another visitor from around 1905. Early
career success as a book illustrator in the 'Glasgow Style' allowed
Jessie King to purchase a High Street property in 1908, apparently
on Hornel's advice. She renamed the property 'Greengate' and
intended to use it as 'bolt hole' from Glasgow, but from 1915 it
was to become the permanent home for her and her husband, E A
Taylor. Up to then, they had been teaching in their own 'Shieling
Atelier' in Paris, but with the outbreak of the First World War ,
the flow of art students ceased. Unable to make a living in Paris,
the couple came to Kirkcudbright to see out the War. However as she
later wrote to E A Hornel
Since 1915, the Fates seem to have decided that we should stay
here for a longer time, and it was during this enforced stay that
the charm of this quaint, old-world town took real hold of
me.
Jessie M King and E A Taylor brought new vigour to Kirkcudbright's
artistic community. As well as their connections with Glasgow
School of Art, their teaching in Paris had acquainted them with
many European and American artists, as well as other ex-patriot
Scots, including Samuel J Peploe, one of the Scottish Colourists.
He became a regular visitor to Kirkcudbright from 1918, and painted
town subjects and in the local countryside. The couple decided
against returning to Paris when the war ended, although their flat
was kept on to allow Taylor to continue to review French
exhibitions for The Studio art journal, which he did until the
1930s. Both continued to teach in Kirkcudbright, attracting
students from both Glasgow and the Edinburgh College of Art,
including Cecile Walton, Dorothy Nesbit and Dorothy Johnstone. It
was around this time that Robert Burns, Head of Painting in
Edinburgh, is quoted as saying that no student's training was
complete without a stay with the Taylors at the Greengate. The
cottages down Greengate Close provided cheap accommodation for
visiting artists, and some permanent residents such as Lena
Alexander. By the 1920s, journalists were writing of the 'Greengate
Coterie' largely composed of women artists. The group included
artists, but also the metal worker, Agnes Harvey, and the jeweller,
Mary Thew.
The deaths of Jessie M King in 1949 and E A Taylor in 1951 mark
the end of a vibrant period in the history of Kirkcudbright's
artistic community. However the influx of artists and craft workers
continued in the 1940s including William Miles Johnstone and his
wife Dorothy Nesbit, Lena Alexander, Tim Jeffs, the sculptor
Phyllis Bone - the first woman to be elected to the Royal Scottish
Academy - and the potter Tommy Lochhead. Behind these Charles
Oppenheimer continued to paint until his death in the 1960s and was
respected as the senior member of the community. His 'gravitas' was
called in by the younger artists to support moves to preserve the
Harbour Cottages and create the town's Harbour Cottage Art Gallery,
which opened in 1956. Tim Jeffs, Tommy Lochhead and Dorothy Nesbit
were also involved in setting up the successful Summer School in
Kirkcudbright for fine art, ceramics and textiles. The demise of
the artist community has been dated to 1983 - when Lena Alexander -
seen as the last of the 1940s group - died. Since this time artists
and craft workers have been more generally spread across the
County, although the town continues to attract a noticeable numbers
of artists - some visiting, but others choosing to
settle.