Private
Collection
Collection
Alexander Jamieson
(1873 - 1937)
Market Square, 1927
Private Collection
Alexander Jamieson (1873 - 1937)
Size:
Height – 26.7cm
Width – 33.6cm
Literature: Alexander Jamieson and his Wife Biddy Macdonald, Hazlitt Gallery, October-November 1970.
Llewellyn, Sacha, and Paul Liss. Portrait of an Artist. Liss Llewellyn, 2021, p.91.
In a guilded rough oak reverse wedge section frame with laurel knull
This painting dates from the time of Jamieson’s marriage to fellow artist Gertrude Macdonald, known as Biddy, in 1907. It is likely that on seeing his wife in bed, with the breakfast he had just set out for her to wake up to, Jamieson painted this panel rapidly on the spot. The unprimed ground (there are some indentation marks in the board at the bottom right) suggests that Jamieson worked on the nearest board to hand – as a struggling newly-wed could he not afford fine panels to work on . Sitting rooms often doubled as bedrooms in Scotland at this period – here the teapot warming by the fire adds a touching domestic detail.
Painter of landscapes, townscapes, flowers and some portraits in oil. He was born in Glasgow in 1873 and studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art, where he won a scholarship to Paris in 1898. There he met many Impressionist painters, and perfected the wet-in-wet painting technique which he was to use to great effect for the rest of his life. He held a solo exhibition at the Carfax Gallery in 1912 and subsequently exhibited in London, the provinces, at the ROI (member 1927) and at the RA. He also showed in Europe and is represented in public collections including the Tate Gallery and the Louvre. He made many visits to France and in 1911 went to Spain. During World War I he served with the 10th York and Lancaster Regiment as a Quarter-Master, serving in France from 1915 to 1918. He lived in Buckinghamshire and painted many of its landscapes. He was married to the artist Gertrude Macdonald, known as Biddy.
Selected Literature: J.B. Manson, “Alexander Jamieson”, The Studio, 1910, pp. 274-82.
