Arthur Melville (1855–1904) was a Scottish painter of Orientalist subjects, among others.
Arthur Melville RWS ARSA | |
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| Born | 10 April 1855 Loanhead-of-Guthrie, Forfarshire, Scotland |
| Died | 28 August 1904 Witley, Surrey, England |
| Resting place | Brookwood Common, Pirbright, Surrey 51.29317802401124, -0.6269166346426999 |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Alma mater |
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| Known for | Painting |
| Spouse(s) | Ethel Melville, née Croall (1872–1917) |
Early life and art education
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Arthur Melville was born in Loanhead-of-Guthrie, Forfarshire (now Angus, Scotland[1]) on 10 April 1855.[2][3] The family moved to East Linton, Haddingtonshire (now East Lothian), around the 1860s.[3] He took up painting while working as a grocer's apprentice and he attended evening art classes in Edinburgh - his biographer (Agnes E. Mackay who was his niece) indicated that he often walked the eight miles there and back.[4] In 1874 he was employed as a bookkeeper in Dalkeith.[3] He became a fulltime student at the Royal Scottish Academy School under John Campbell Noble.[5] He was also influenced by John Robertson Reid. In 1877 he had, at the age of 22, his painting A Cabbage Garden, accepted by the Royal Academy.[6] Melville sold the painting to James Hunter Annandale, a Lasswade paper manufacturer, and this partially financed the artist's studies in Paris from 1878 to 1880.[7]
in 1878 he travelled to Paris and enrolled at the Atelier Julian (Académie Julian).[8] Here he began to learn about the intricacies of watercolour painting although his niece writes that he spent much time admiring the work of other artists - she mentions Monet's Les Didons Blancs as an influence with its movement, colour and light.[2] He had met a Scottish artist, Robert Weir Allan, who had introduced him to the Impressionists.[5] He then spent the summer of 1879 in Grez-sur-Loing.[8] At Grez-sur-Loing a number of artists gathered and they were en plain air adherents, many being followers of Jules Bastien-Lepage.[3] As well as Grez-sur-Loing, Melville visited Granville, Honfleur. He seemed keen to find peasant models who would pose en plein air following in the footsteps of the work of French rural Naturalists.[3] He returned to Edinburgh early in the summer of 1880 and he took a studio in Shandwick Place which he shared with his brother George, a medical student. He only stayed a few months as he intended to return to France and then to travel to the Middle East.[3][9]
Travels
editThe colour-sense which is so notable a feature of Melville's work developed during his travels in Persia, Egypt and Turkey between 1880 and 1882,[10] where he sometimes travelled alone on long inland journeys. To convey strong Middle Eastern light, he developed a technique of using watercolour on a base of wet paper with gouache applied to it.
Melville, though comparatively little known during his lifetime, was one of the most powerful influences in the contemporary art of his day, especially in his broad decorative treatment with watercolour, which influenced the Glasgow Boys. Though his vivid impressions of colour and movement are apparently recorded with feverish haste, they are the result of careful deliberation and selection. He was at his best in his watercolours of Eastern life and colour and his Venetian scenes, but he also painted several striking portraits in oils and a powerful composition of The Return from the Crucifixion which remained unfinished at his death in 1904. The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of his watercolours, The Little Bull-Fig-ht Bravo, Toro! and others, like An Oriental Goatherd in the Weimar Museum, are in many museums, especially in Scotland. Many of his pictures remain with private collectors.[10]
Melville died on August 28th, 1904 and his ashes were buried at his former home. In 1909 his widow had them moved to Brookwood Heath, Surrey, next to Brookwood Cemetery.
His gravesite is marked with a memorial stone which was restored in 2023 by the Brookwood Cemetery Society.
A comprehensive memorial exhibition of Melville's works was held at the Royal Institute Galleries in London in 1906.[10]
Notes
edit- ^ Gale, Iain (1996). Arthur Melville. Edinburgh: Atelier Books. p. 20. ISBN 1-873830-09-2.
- ^ a b Mackay, Agnes (1951). Arthur Melville R.W.S., A.R.S.A. Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis Publishers Limited. pp. 14, 20–21.
- ^ a b c d e f Arthur Melville Adventures in Colour. Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland. 2015. pp. 12, 13, 31, 125. ISBN 9781906270872.
- ^ Arthur Melville R.W.S., A.R.S.A. Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis Publishers Limited. 1951. p. 15.
- ^ a b "ExploreArt - Artists - Arthur MELVILLE". www.exploreart.co.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
- ^ Knox, James (2020). The Glasgow Girls and Boys. London: The Fleming Collection. pp. 6, 63. ISBN 978-1-5272-7058-9.
- ^ National Galleries of Scotland. "A Cabbage Garden". Archived from the original on 23 November 2017.
- ^ a b Goudie, Lachlan (2020). The story of Scottish art. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. pp. 221 222. ISBN 978-0-500-23961-2. OCLC 1143465981.
- ^ MacKay, Agnes (1951). Arthur Melville RWS ARSA 1855-1904. Leigh-on-Sea: F Lewis Publishers Limited. p. 25.
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
References
edit- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Melville, Arthur". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 102.
- Caw, James Lewis (1912). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Brickley, Chris. "Melville, Arthur (1855–1904)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34983. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
External links
edit- 27 artworks by or after Arthur Melville at the Art UK site
- Lachlan Goudie on Arthur Melville
- Arthur Melville: A collection of 136 works
- Arthur Melville online (ArtCyclopedia)
- Biography of & artworks by Arthur Melville at the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries, Scotland virtual representation of the Gracefield Arts Centre's Permanent Collection at exploreart.co.uk
- Passion and intrigue of an Eastern love affair - Arthur Melville's watercolours (The Independent, 13 August 1996)
- Paintings by Melville (Bridgeman Art Library)
- The Sapphire Sea (watercolour, 1892 - The Scottish Gallery)
- After the Play (Chalk - Christie's)
- Arthur Melville Grave Restoration Project of the Brookwood Cemetery Society