ACRES OF BOOKS LC ^ 1, CALIf, UNIFORM JVITH THIS VOLUME GEORGE MORLAND Bv Sir WALTER GILBEY, Bart., and E. D. CUMING Containing 50 Full-page Reproductions in Colour of the artist's best work. Price 20/- net. {Post /rec, price 20/6) There is also an Edition de Luxe, limited to 250 signed and numbered Copies. Price £2 :2s. net. KATE GREEN AWAY By M. H. SPIELMANN & G. S. LAYARD Containing 91 Full-page Plates (55 in Colour and numerous line illustrations in the text. Price 20/- net. (Post free, price 20/6) BIRKET FOSTER By H. M. CUNDALL, LS.O., F.S.A. Containing 91 Full-page Illustrations (73 in Colour) and numerous thumb-nail sketches in the text. Price 20/- net. {Post free, price 20/6) There is also an Edition de Luxe, limited to 500 signed and numbered Copies, each containing as frontispiece an Etching by Birket Foster. Price £2 : 2s. net. WILLIAM CALLOW, R.W.S. An Autobiography Edited by H. M. CUNDALL, I.S.O., F.S.A. Containing 21 Full-page reproductions in Colour of the artist's work, and numerous line sketches. Price 7/6 net. (Post /7-ee, price 7/1 1) A. AND C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. PORTRAIT OF JOHN PETTIE, BY HIMSELF (Size of original, 12 x 9J.) JOHN PETTIE R.A., i/.R.S.A. BY MARTIN HARDIE, B.A., A.R.E. ADAM LONDON AND CHARLES 1908 BLACK AGENTS America . The Macmillan Company 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, New York Australasia The Oxford University Press, Melbourne Canada . The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd. 27 Richmond Street West, Toronto India . Macmillan & Company, Ltd, Macmillan Building, Bombay 309 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta TO MRS. PETTIE FOR REMEMBRANCE PREFACE Mi After reading an artist's biography, John Pettie once turned to his sister and said : " Well, no one will ever write my life ; it has been much too uneventful." It was, indeed, a life spent amid quiet waters, away from the storm and stress of action. Its very calmness, the ease and rapidity with which success was won, rob the biographer of picturesque opportunities. Pettie, moreover, was an indifferent correspondent, for he hated letter - writing, and he left nothing in the shape of diaries or documents (beyond a rough viii JOHN PETTIE and incomplete list of his pictures) available for biographical purposes. These are probably the reasons why, though fifteen years have passed since his death, no monograph on John Pettie has yet appeared. These fifteen years, however, have witnessed a growing appreciation of his work, and especially of his power and influence as a colourist. It is increasingly recognised that Pettie with the other members of the Scott Lauder School — with George Paul Chalmers, McTaggart, Orchardson, and the rest — counts as one of the forces in nineteenth century art, and that his work has the elements of dramatic power, of brilliant colour, and individual style which make for permanent greatness. This must be the justification for the present volume, which professes to be little more than a plain presenta- tion of the essential facts of the artist's career with an attempt to indicate how his personal character is reflected in his work, and what the nature and value of that work is. His soul and strength were given to his art, his work was his life, and, biographical material of the ordinary kind being scanty, it is by his pictures that he must be known. It is therefore mainly of the painter that I have written. Those who knew and loved the man must pardon an PREFACE ix imperfect record of one whose nature was at once as strong and as delicate as his own colour. I have tried to avoid approaching my subject in the partial spirit which relationship often engenders, and it is the more easy to offer unprejudiced criticism in that I was but a boy when my uncle died. It has been my endeavour also to avoid dwelling overmuch on incidents and sayings that to others might seem uninteresting or trivial. One might multiply little traits of character and relate end- less acts of kindness and generosity, which to the general reader might prove but a wearisome repetition of the fact that Pettie was one of the kindest and most generous of mankind. From the art point of view, the main value of my book will possibly be found in what I believe to be the almost complete descriptive catalogue of Pettie's work which it supplies. This has been compiled from his own imperfect entries in a note- book, from exhibition and sale catalogues, and from notes of pictures in private hands. The collecting of particulars as to many of the pictures has involved a vast amount of research and correspondence. In many cases a picture has been run to earth after quite a long process of detective work in the searching of clues and b X JOHN PETTIE sifting of evidence. To all those correspondents who have helped me in the prosecution of such researches I tender most hearty thanks. Many biographical facts interwoven in the narrative have been gathered from conversations with friends of the artist, or from letters which they have kindly written to me. Though I have frequently used almost the actual words of the speaker or writer, I have not found it possible in every case to mention the name of a particular informant as to each fact or impression. My warm thanks are due in the first place to Mrs. Pettie and other members of the artist's family for keen interest and constant help ; and, in the next, to many of Pettie's old friends whom it has been my lot to seek out in the course of collecting information. It is a pleasure here to express my appreciation of their warm welcome and ready assistance. Their names are almost too numerous to record, but I would particularly acknowledge the valuable help given by Mr. J. Bowie, A.R.S. A., Dr. Brown, Mr. A. S. Cope, A.B.A., Mr. J. H. Downes, Mr. Clarence M. Dobell, Mr. C. E. Johnson, Mr. J. MacCunn, Mr. W. D. MacKay, R.S.A., Mr. W. McTaggart, U.S.A., Mr. J. MacWhirter, R.A., Mr. Seymour Lucas, PREFACE xi R.A., Mr. David Murray, R.A., Mr. J. Campbell Noble, R.S.A., Miss Noble, Mr. Briton Riviere, R.A., Mr. W. Wallace, Mr. A. P. Watt, and Mr. C. Winn. Mr. J. Paton (Glasgow Corporation Art Gallery), Mr. James L. Caw (National Gallery of Scotland), Mr. R. Wood (Edinburgh Board of Trustees), Mr. G. Mackie (Aberdeen Art Gallery), Mr. Percy Bate (Royal Glasgow Institute), Mr. E. Howarth (Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield), Mr. D. S. MacColl (Tate Gallery), Mr. J. J. Browns word (Wolver- hampton Art Gallery), Mr. G. Birkett (City Art Gallery, Leeds), and Mr. J. B. Hall (National Gallery, Melbourne) have all furnished particulars of pictures in their charge, or have given much useful information as to other works with which they were acquainted. For similar courtesy I am indebted to Mr. Croal Thomson (Messrs. Agnew and Sons), Mr. W. L. Peacock (Messrs. Wallis and Son), Mr. R. Muir (Messrs. Bennett and Sons, Glasgow), Messrs. Arthur Tooth, and Mr. W. Permain. Mr. Alexander Strahan and Messrs. Blackie and Son have made useful communications as to Pettie's early work as a book illustrator. Articles on John Pettie in the Art Journal (1893) by Mr. W. M. Gilbert, and in Good Words xii JOHN PETTIE (1893) by Mr. Robert Walker, and an admirable account of East Linton in an early number of the Scottish Revieu\ have all been helpful. At various points, assistance has been gained from Sir Walter Armstrong's Scottish Paintei^s (1888) and Mr. W. D. MacKay s Scottish School (1906), while again and again I have had recourse for information to Mr. Edward Pinnington's George Paul CJialmers, R.S.A., and the Ai^t of his Time (Glasgow, 1896). His exhaustive study of the work of Lauder's pupils and the skill with which he suggests the atmosphere of their time, makes the book invaluable to any one interested in the nineteenth century developments of Scottish Art. Colour -reproductions that come within the limits of a printed page such as this cannot possibly convey in every case the full power and subtleties of a fine painting in oil. But the utmost care has been taken to ensure the best possible results, and I venture to believe that very many of the accompanying illustrations are, of their kind, remarkably exact and truthful, a not unworthy record of the painter's work. The hearty thanks of my Publishers and myself are due to those owners of pictures who, often at considerable inconvenience, have lent works in their possession PREFACE xiii for reproduction. Their names are not recorded here, for acknowledgment of the source from which each illustration has come is made on pages xxi to xxiii. For special facilities in reproducing works in their charge I am indebted to the Council of the Royal Academy, the Trustees of the Royal HoUoway College, and the authorities of the Tate Gallery, the Mappin Art Gallery (Sheffield), and the Art Galleries of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee. Lastly, my thanks are due to my old friend Mr. John Henderson, who has read my proof with close care and has favoured me throughout with constant advice and suggestions. CONTENTS CHAPTER I A picturesque village— Pettie's birth, and boyhood at East Linton— His parents and their influence— East Linton a Scottish Barbizon— llie born artist — Early experiments — Penny cakes of water-colour — Difficulties overcome — House-painters' pigments — A landscape impression— Early portraiture, and a village verdict— Visit to a Scottish Academician — An obvious " call "—Enters the Trustees' Academy — Lodges with his uncle, Robert Frier — His fellow- students— Robert Scott Lauder : liis teaching and influence— His pupils as a School— Lauder's wrath at the new system— Other influences— John Phillip— The Pre-Raphaelite movement— A critic of 1860 — Pettie and Orchardson— Friendship with McTaggart, Chalmers, and others— " Their talk was all of colour"— "Always on the trot"— Early skill in draughtsmanship— Deliberate search for expression in colour— Prizes at the Trustees' Academy— The Life Class — Rejected at the Scottish Academy — First success Commended by The Scotsman—A picture now in Australia— Illustra- tions for Family Worship— Contemporary criticism on pictures of 1860— Destroys his own pictures— First commission for Good Words —Meeting with Dr. Norman Macleod— First venture at the Royal Academy— A painter with a future— Last work in Edinburgh— A narrow escape— Exercise and amusement— Light hearts and empty pockets— The Volunteer movement— Letter about the first recruits —The Artists' Company— The Edinburgh Review— Pettie and McTaggart help to fire the Royal Salute— Some early corre- spondence—Proposed visit to Paris— London stirs his imagina- tion Page 1 XV xvi JOHN PETTIE CHAPTER II Uuremitting activity of Lauder's students — Need for hard work — The precariousuess of Art — Formation of a Sketching Club — The members — The Club at work and play — Love of dramatic incident — Sketches by Chalmers, Orchardson, and Pettie — The common influence in all — Edinburgh a city of Clubs — Predecessors of the Sketching Club — Its immediate forerunner, '^'The Smashers"— "The Smashers" reconstituted in London as the "Auld Lang Syne " — An early minute-book of the " Auld Lang Syne " Club— Lauder's students revive their Sketching Club in London — Fresh members added — Subjects, and methods of work — Some typical sketches — Academy pictures have their origin at the Club — A Club letter on the death of G. P. Chalmers, R.S.A. — End of the Club meetings— Book illustrations of the 'sixties — Pettie's work for Good Words — A Good Words illustration becomes subject of a picture — A tribute from Gleeson White — Gives up Good Words illustrations — Suffers at the hands of the engraver— Other work for periodicals — • Illustrations for various books — His fine draughtsmanship in black- and-white — Joins ''The Etching Club" — Fellow-members — Two etchings from pictures — One suggests a picture . . Page 38 CHAPTER III Attraction of London to his ambitious nature — Follows Good Words to London — Method of developing ideas for the wood-block — A coffee-room table as a sketch-block — Shares a house with Orchardson and Tom Graham — Elxliibits at the Royal Academy — The persistency of a collector — Trip to Brittany — Some Brittany pictures — Bread-and-butter for breakfast — Makes strides in his profession — Removal to Fitzroy Square with Orchardson, Graham, and C. E. Johnson— A historic house in an artists' quarter — A Bohemian existence — Model and prize-fighter — The true spirit of Socialism — Armorial bearings and a brutal Government — Mr. Clarence Dobell's reminiscences — The new generation of Scotsmen — Certain of having their pictures hung — Marked men and made men — Put air and space into their canvases— Unkind criticism, and Time's revenges — Ruskin on John Pettie — Pettie and others on Ruskin — Pettie's powerful chiaroscuro — The repose CONTENTS xvii of blank spaces — Ten years of fine work — Visit to Hastings^ and marriage — " The Drum-head Court-Martial " a marked success — The Mappin Art Gallery^ — Poorly represented in London — "The Arrest for Witchcraft" — Critics find the picture "dun" — Elec- tion to Associateship of Royal Academy — Unusually young for the honour — Sir Walter Armstrong on Pettie's early success — Opinion in Edinburgh as to Orchardson and Pettie — Steady and consistent growth — Follows his own inclinations — No pandering to popularity — Ambition and tenacity — -Dealers knock at his studio door — A good income — Unspoiled by success . , Page 59 CHAPTER IV New house and a supposed burglar — Ten years at 17 St. John's Wood Road — "At Bay" — "Treason" — Balance each year between tragedy and comedy — Visit to Italy — "Tussle with a Highland Smuggler" a high-water mark — Contemporary criticism of "The Disgrace of Cardinal Wolsey "—Pictures of 1870—" The Sally " one of Pettie's greatest works — " 'Tis Blythe May Day/' and its successors of similar type — " A Scene in the Temple Gardens " — Other pictures of 1871 — A visit from Josef Israels — Election as an Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy — "Terms to the Besieged/' "The Flag of Truce/' and other works of 1872 and 1873 . Page 83 CHAPTER V Election as a Royal Academician — Exhibits two of his finest works — A piece of realism — The result of importunity — " Ho ! Ho ! Old Noll " — A problem of tone — Serves on the Hanging Committee — Diploma picture — Other work of 1875 — Power of rendering concentrated action — "The Tussle for the Keg" and "The Threat" — Lord Leighton as model — " The Solo " and " The Step " — A holiday at Callander — The influence of Scott and Highland scenery — "Dis- banded" and other Highland subjects — The death of G. P. Chalmers, R.S.A. — Letters to Chalmers's mother and McTaggart — "The Hour/' and Pettie's passion for red — "The Death-Warrant" — Sir Walter Armstrong on Pettie as a colourist — Work of 1880 and 1881 — "Trout-Fishing" — Power as a painter of landscape — Clever c xviii JOHN PETTIE rendering of movement— "The Duke of Monmouth begging his Life "—The opinion of Dean Farrar— Other pictures of 1882— Builds "The Lothians" in Fitzjohn's Avenue— Sir John Millais's interest in the house — The studio to be a " workshop " — Furniture, armour, and bric-a-brac— The studio a reflection of its occupant -Entertainments in the studio— The property-room— Studies destroyed by Pettie's executors Page 97 CHAPTER VI The search for a subject— " Dost know this Waterfly ? "— The "Blue Boy " problem— A punning title— A lean year— Trouble with " The Orientation of the Church "—His own mistaken estimate — "The Vigil" unsatisfactory but popular— Description of the Vigil of Arms — " Challenged " — Critical opinions of the picture — Mr. Seymour Lucas, and a night at Raynham Hall — Sir Walter Armstrong on Pettie's colour— " The Chieftaiia's Candlesticks"— A problem picture— The story as told by Sir Walter Scott— The candlemaker's offer— Exhibits of 1887— "The Traitor"— Two versions and their differences — A visit from Verestschagin— A moment of danger — " The Clash of Steel "— " The World went very well then " — Pictures of youth and spring-time — Exhibits of 1890 and 1891— "Bonnie Prince Charlie "—Last exhibits— Illness — Removal to Hastings— Death after an operation — Funeral at Paddington Cemetery Page 118 CHAPTER VII Pettie as a portrait - painter — Portraits equal to his subject- pictures — Not sufficiently known— Lean years for the painter of genre— Portraiture became a necessity and a real pleasure —How to get the best models— Subject-paintings a portrait gallery of his relations and friends — Likenesses to be found in his pictures A portrait of Briton Riviere— Position as a portraitist — Good sense and sound handling — Always a colourist — Dislike of modern costume— The costume-portrait — Arguments for and against it — Several portraits in costume— "A. P. Watt as a Scholar in the Time of Titian"— "Sheriff Strachan," a problem in greys— Portraits CONTENTS xix of artists in the Macdonald Collection, Aberdeen— Paid for " in meal or malt" — Portraits of Bough, Chalmers, and Ballantyne — Other portraits of artists— Portraits of authors — A tribute from Sir Walter Besant — Music, the Church, the Stage — Portraits of old age and of youth — Purity of flesh-tints — A portrait with a romantic history — Delicate refinement of handling — Rapidity of workmanship — Meeting with Dr. Burton, and a three hours' portrait — A deliberate test of speed — A practical joke — Other examples of rapidity — Caps stories with Bret Harte — Six cigars to a picture — Full story of the portrait of J. C. Noble, R.S.A. — Noble's Rembrandtesque studio— A " bit of blue " — A "shy" at Noble's head — The first three sittings — A discussion about cadmium — "For God's sake, gie me a bit o' cadmium " — A velvet coat commandeered — Physical exhaustion- Country skies versus those of London — An Academy banquet at Greenwich — Sir John Millais chafi's Pettie — "One of the finest portraits painted this century" — A nouveau riche whose portrait was not painted Page 140 CHAPTER VIII Love of the dramatic in life, action, and colour — Rembrandt's " beef- steaks "■ — The picture must tell its tale — Influence of Sir Walter Scott on Pettie and Scottish art — Subjects drawn from Scott — Attracted by the romantic drama of the past — A revival of romance — Elizabethan and Cromwellian periods supply many themes — Correctness of dress and accessories — Incidents from Shakespeare and Sheridan — Imaginative subjects of his own — Historical scenes — Pictures giving the spirit of history rather than historical fact — The quality of vision — Evil days for the subject-picture — The "literary idea" condemned — Pettie's independence of literature, and power of invention — Art not the slave of literature — Wide appeal of the subject-painting — Pettie's claim to greatness — His temperament reflected in subject and style — A rapid worker — An impressionist in the best sense — Knew when to stop — Chalmers and Tom Graham — His " white process " — Technique — Colour first and foremost — Wide range and daring use of colour — A French criticism — Mr. Briton Riviere on Pettie's colour and technique — Developments of style — His best period — Portraits — "Time will colour them" — Pictures have already mellowed — XX JOHN PETTIE Power of draughtsmanship and Tightness of arrangement — Whole- some and sincere British art — Water-colour drawings — Colour will prevail Page 170 CHAPTER IX An uneventful life — A lover of armour, tapestry, and old furniture — An early purchase — A hargain in swords — ^An exchange with Seymour Lucas — The " Kernoozers' " Club — Visitors' nights — The connoisseur not infallible — A sad blow to Seymour Lucas — Pettie's love of music, and its inspiration in his work — A song for each picture — ^Hamish MacCunn, and a prophetic vision — Marriage of Pettie's daughter — Orchestral concerts — Music in his pictures — A prodigious smoker — '^'^Now for a smoke!" — A memorable Channel crossing — A keen player of tennis — An enthusiastic angler — A purist in fishing — The fishing motive in pictures — Summers spent in Arran — Visits to Italy — Sympathy with the young — Two letters— E. A. Abbey, R.A., in 1891— Hospitality at "The Lothians" — Welcome to Briton Riviere — '^Say they've come frae Scotland" — Encouragement to students — Warm sympathy with beginners — Shows how the wheels go round — Incessant industry, and large total of exhibits — Honest and plain-spoken — A personality of a rare kind — A good companion and loyal friend — His nature " all amber and gold " .... Page 194 APPENDIXES I. Portraits of John Pettie ..... Page 213 II. Catalogue of Pictures by John Pettie . . . Page 214 INDEX Page 265 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR 1. Portrait of John Pettie, by himself . 2. The Hour . 3 Cromwell's Saints 4. The Monk Sturmi in Search of a Monastery Site 5. A Moment of Danger . 6. The Step . 7. The Jacobites 8. A Drum - head Court Martial . 9. The Rehearsal 10. Treason 1 1 . Pax Vobiscum 12. The Sally . . . Owner of Original, J. MacWhirter, Esq., R.A. Frontispiece FACING PAGE Thomas M'Arly, Esq. . 18 John Jordan, Esq. . 30 Sir W. J affray, Bart. T. H. Ryland, Esq. Ken?ieth M. Clark, Esq. The Royal Academy Mappin Art Gallenj Sheffield Adam Wood, Esq. Mappin Art Gallery Sheffield H. J. Turner, Esq. Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield 50 58 68 72 76 78 84 86 xxii JOHN PETTIE IS. Rejected Addresses . 14. The Flag of Truce 15. "To the Fields I carried her Milking-Pails " 16. Lady Teazle 17. A State Secret . 18. Ho! Ho! Old Noll! . 19. Friar Lawrence and Juliet . 20. The Solo .... 21. A Sword-and-Dagger Fight 22. The Highland Outpost 23. Trout-Fishing in the High- lands .... 24. The Palmer 25. " Dost know this Waterfly ? ' ' 26. The Vigil . . . . 27. Charles Surface selling his Ancestors 28. The Chieftain's Candlesticks 29. The Musician 30. Two Strings to her Bow 31. A Storm in a Teacup . 32. The Traitor 33. The World went very well then . . . . Owner op Original facing page The Rt. Hon. Baron Faber ... 90 Mappin Art Gallei-y, Sheffield ... 92 R. H. Brechin, Esq. . 94 Charles Winn, Esq. . 96 Royal Hollotmy College, Egham . . .98 W. J. Chrystal, Esq. . 100 Mrs. Mayou . . .102 Kenneth M. Clark, Esq. . 104 Corporatioti Art Gallery, Glasgow . . .106 Mrs. Orchar . . .108 W. S. Steel, Esq. . .112 John Aird, Esq. . . II6 P. S. Bro7vn, Esq. . 120 Tate Gallery . . 1 24 J. Ogston, Esq. . .126 [^By jyermission of the late Mrs. Morten] . .128 Aberdeen Art Gallei-y . 130 Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow . . .132 Colonel Harding . .134 Mrs. Ness . . .136 James Murray, Esq., M.P. . . .138 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxiii 34. Bonnie Prince Charlie 35. Scene from Peveril of the Peak .... 36. Portrait of A. P. Watt, Esq., as a Scholar in the Time of Titian .... 37. Portrait of William Black . 38. Portrait of Sir Charles Wyndham, as David Garrick .... 39. Portrait of Miss Bessie Watt 40. Portrait of Martin and Berta Hardie .... 41. A Fay re Ladye . 42. Portrait of Dr. Burton 43. Portrait of J. Campbell Noble, R.S.A. . 44. The Milkmaid . 45. Disbanded .... 46. The Clash of Steel . 47. Grandmother's Memories . 48. The Cardinal 49. A Knight in Armour (Portrait of William Wallace, Esq.) 50. Two Strings to her Bow (Water-colour Sketch) Owner of Original facing page Charles Stewart, Esq. . 140 James Murray, Esq., M.P. 144 A. P. Watt, Esq. . . 148 Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow . . .150 Sir Charles Wyndham . 152 A. P. Watt, Esq. . .154 Mrs. Hardie . . .156 T. L. S. Roberts, Esq. . 158 C. Witin, Esq. . .160 /. G Noble, Esq., R.S.A. 162 John Jordan, Esq. . .166 Fine Art Institidion, Dundee . . .172 John Jordan, Esq. . .174 Trustees of the late Alex. Rose, Esq. . . 176 [By permission of the late Mrs. Morten] . .180 W. Wallace, Esq. . 184 Charles Winn, Esq. . 192 XXIV JOHN PETTIE ALSO EIGHT SMALL ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK AND WHITE Pettie's Fist, by E. A. Abbey, R.A i The Harlequin Boy (Goo(^ PForc?.y, 1863) . . . . iii Study of Two Children's Heads iv The Monk Sturmi in Search of a Monastery Site (Good Words, 1863) vii Pettie's dream of Hamish MacCunn conducting a monster orchestra ........ xiv Sketch of E. A. Abbey, R.A xxi "The Country Surgeon" (Gooi/ ^ort/*, 1862) . . .263 "What sent me to Sea" (Gooc? ^orcZ*, 1862) . . . 264 JOHN PETTIE CHAPTER I EDINBURGH DAYS The little village of East Linton lies six miles from Dunbar, and about twenty-three miles south of Edinburgh. Though the expresses from London go thundering across the bridge that spans the Tyne in the very midst of its red-roofed houses, the village offers no obvious attractions to the tourist, and still preserves much of the quiet remoteness which characterised it some sixty years ago when John Pettie was a boy. After the railway track crosses the Border at Berwick, a traveller with observant eye is rewarded by many pleasant glimpses of smiling scenery. On the one side are the rich agricultural uplands of "the garden of Scotland " ; on the other, deep gullies breaking through red-rocked cliffs give a vista of the huts of salmon-fishers on the shore below, with nets drying in the sunlight, and quaint, flat-bottomed boats 2 JOHN PETTIE riding on the waves. But in all that journey there is no bit of scenery more picturesque or attractive than that glimpse — alas ! too brief — of the red roofs of East Linton, and of the old stone bridge, with its ribbed arches, where the river goes tumbling over dark masses of rock into the ' linn,' to which the village probably owes its name. It was in East Linton that John Pettie spent his boyhood. The Dictionai^y of National Bio- graphy, and even his own tombstone, honour it as his birthplace ; but that is an error. He was born in Edinburgh on March 17, 1839, and migrated with his parents to East Linton in 1852. His father had purchased a business in the village ; and as the owner of the principal shop, a seller of wares more universal than those of Autolycus, was an import- ant person in the small community. Both parents were simple, honest, God-fearing Scottish folk. The father, Alexander Pettie, was kindly, humor- ous, and of a singularly gentle nature. In a faded letter, which he wrote to me when I first went to school, occurs this passage : — Latin and Greek are all very well : but cultivate good Common Sense. Be kind to your schoolfellows, obliging as far as you can ; never get angry, if possible ; keep cool, and keep your powder dry." EDINBURGH DAYS 3 That was the doctrine which, by precept and example, he had instilled into his son John. A similar letter, written by the latter to a boy who had gained a Queen's Scholarship at Westminster, has recently come into my hands. It bears a curious resemblance to that letter of his father, both in spirit and in actual words, and shows how strongly his father's influence affected his character and career. " Just seen your name in the T'lmes^'' he writes. " Not only your mother and your father, but your friends (I count myself one) are proud of you. Go on, my boy. Keep your head cool, don't think less of some folks who doii't know the Greek for potatoes, and you will do. Pax tibi. [Here there is a sketch of a hand in benediction.] John PErriE." From his father John Pettie derived his gentle- ness and quiet humour ; from his mother, the sterling qualities of pluck and perseverance. Alison Pettie — always the active force of the household — was a typical Scotswoman of the old school, possessing rare shrewdness and keen vigour of intellect. She was a woman of broad sympathies, a thinker and an observer, a wide reader, educated in the fullest sense of the word. Like many another man who has made his mark in the world, Pettie owed much to early upbringing, much to a mother's strength of character. 4 JOHN PETTIE East Linton now has its art traditions, and will figure with prominence in any history of Scottish painting. Pettie's career was undoubtedly the in- spiring influence which led two East Linton boys in later days — Charles Martin Hardie, R.S.A., and the late Arthur Melville, A.R.S.A. — to enter the field of art. Since their time the village has become a haunt of landscape painters, a Scottish Barbizon. Robert Noble, R.S.A., is their doyen, steadily faith- ful to the charms that first won him many years ago ; and the list of those who have fallen tempor- arily under its spell includes J. Campbell Noble, R.S.A. ; Austen Brown, A.R.S.A. ; Coutts Michie, A.R.S.A. ; James Paterson, A.R.S.A. ; Fiddes Watt, Grosvenor Thomas, the late Joseph Far- quharson, A.R. A., and many other Scotsmen ; while England too has sent her ambassadors, among them A. Friedenson and the late Edwin Ellis. The country folk have long ceased to gaze upon artists with open-mouthed curiosity, and by the riverside below the linn you will often find as many painters at work as on the foreshore of Newlyn or in face of the old Sloop Inn at St. Ives, where at times a man has to walk with caution for fear of tripping over the leg of an easel or setting his foot in a box of oily tubes. To those who know the place it is EDINBURGH DAYS 5 little wonder that an artist colony has been attracted by the quaint architecture of bridge and houses, the rocky linn, and the upper reaches of the stream, with old disused mills upon the bank, and pools fringed with silvery willows, that suggest Corot- like subjects at every turn. When Pettie was a boy at East Linton, land- scape painting of the Scottish school was still largely bound by classical convention and the traditions of the grand style. The heritage of Constable and the " men of 1830," who sought out the moods and mystery and poetry of simple Nature, had not yet begun to " thaw the unmaternal bosom of the North." The possibility of wresting the very soul and character out of Nature was still unimagined. And so it was the infinite variety of human character rather than of Nature that appealed to Pettie in his boyhood years. East Linton had no traditions in the 'fifties, and a village lad could obtain no knowledge of the world's inheritance of art. Max Nordau would say of him that he possessed the peculiar susceptibility and keenness of the optical centre, which is the organic hypothesis of the talent for drawing. Scientific explanations are sometimes strangely futile, and it is simpler to say, in plain and adequate language. 6 JOHN PETTIE that he was a born artist. Art was in his blood ; drawing and colour were bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Nature never intended him for the dull and respectable vocation of a country tradesman ; but, naturally enough, his father wished him to follow in his own steps, and it troubled him greatly to observe his son, heedless of immediate duty, making surreptitious sketches of customers or of passers in the street. Everything subserved the boy's purpose, and his early taste grew to a passion. More than once, when despatched on an errand to storeroom or cellar, he was discovered making drawings on the lid of a Avooden box or the top of a cask, totally oblivious of his journey and its object. Dr. Robert Brown, the author of several educational works, who was Pettie's boy-chum in those days at East Linton, possesses the first drawing made by him in more than one colour. The subject, typical in its choice — " The Death of Twedric, King of Gwent, in the moment of Victory," — was copied from a cheap reproduction of some contemporary painting, but the colouring was Pettie's own. To draw and colour pictures, in these days of cheap paint-boxes, is a common amusement of children ; and this is no more than EDINBURGH DAYS 7 the ordinary child's drawing. But in a country village fifty years ago colours were not thrust upon every child, and a work such as this was evidence of difficulties overcome, and of zeal and perseverance. The material for this and later essays in art consisted of penny cakes of water- colours procured from Edinburgh. Among the wares in his father's stores were casks of raw crude pigment — red, blue, yellow ochre, and white lead — kept for the use of house-painters, and with these he dashed into his first experiments with oil. It is more than probable that his introduction to oil paint was forced upon him by some sudden failure in his stock of penny cakes. When a subject suggested itself, he was never one to be delayed or daunted by difficulties, and it was thoroughly characteristic of his impulsive nature that he should seize on the rough pigments of the shop. An instance, one of many, of this zest and eagerness, comes from a memory of my boyhood. On an evening walk with my uncle from Corrie to Glen Sannox in the Isle of Arran he was suddenly arrested by the particular effect of a single yellow light in the window of a white-washed cottage which glowed like luminous white paint against the dark background of purple heather. Neither 8 JOHN PETTIE by nature nor by choice was he a landscape painter, but he was caught by the inspiration of the theme, and turned straight homewards to make a vivid water-colour impression with my shilling box of paints, the only colours at his command. Even in those early days under his parents' roof-tree it was portraiture and genre that evoked Petti e's talent, and he made the most of the subjects which came ready to hand. Various members of his family served as models for portraits in crayon, washed with slight tint. A remarkable piece of work for the untrained hand of a country lad, fifteen years of age or less, is a drawing in colour of a village "character," one John Little, who went his rounds with a donkey, carrying coal and what not. The simple and untutored sketch is instinct with keen observation and subtle render- ing of character. The carrier's costume, the donkey's head, the tiles on the roof of the house, and the cobble stones of the road are drawn with particular care. " Losh me ! If it isna Jock Little an' his wonderfu' cuddy : it's sae life-like that it's no canny," was the village verdict. Even the "gudeman," though he might not admit it, was consciously proud of his son. At last there came a day when the mother's EDINBURGH DAYS 9 sympathy intervened. Greatly daring, she carried off her son to Edinburgh, a bundle of drawings beneath his arm, to visit Mr. James Drummond, one of the leading members of the Royal Scottish Academy. They were courteously received, and Drummond, after listening to the mother's story, threw out every discouragement. "Much better make him stick to business " was his verdict, based on experience rather than evidence. After a long and kindly conversation, during which the boy stood by, silent and miserable, Mrs. Pettie ventured with a sigh, "Then it's no use showing you his drawings ? " Mainly to cheer the lad, who looked utterly downcast, Drummond readily expressed his willingness to see the work. Eagerly was the parcel opened, and sketch after sketch was handed to the painter, who studied them in silence, one after one. The boy watched his face tensely, like one who awaits a physician's verdict of life or death. Not a word was spoken till the great man handed them all back, and turn- ing to the mother said, "Well, madam, you can put that boy to what you like, but he'll die an artist ! " There was no longer any idea of thwarting so obvious a "call." With every encouragement 10 JOHN PETTIE Pettie set out for Edinburgh to enter the Academy, founded by the Board of Trustees for Manufactures, then the only art school of its kind in Scotland. Drummond stood sponsor to him by giving the necessary recommendation, and his name was entered upon the rolls on October 16, 1855. From then until 1860 he lived at 56 India Street, with his uncle, Robert Frier, who only a few years before had himself forsaken a business in the High Street of Edinburgh to become a painter and a highly successful teacher of drawing. From the start Pettie had a steady supporter and friend in Robert Frier. At the head of the Trustees' Academy was Robert Scott Lauder, R.S.A., who, with John Ballantyne as his assistant, took personal charge of the Antique, Life, and Colour Departments of the School. Lauder had entered upon his duties in 1852, and his teaching and influence were beginning to make a clear mark on the develop- ment of the Scottish School. He possessed a fine sense of design, and a command of colour which has led Sir Walter Armstrong, in his Scottish Painters, to say that " in Lauder's better work there are passages which come near Dela- croix in rich resonance of tint." He had not the EDINBURGH DAYS 11 sustained force and the imagination of Delacroix, and at times there is a looseness and stiffness in his drawing, but he had the true passion for colour, and it was this colour instinct which he handed on to the younger generation. George Paul Chalmers, W. Q. Orchardson, J. MacWhirter, Hugh Cameron, Peter Graham, Tom Graham, and W. McTaggart were among Pettie's con- temporaries at the Trustees' Academy. It is no mean roll of names for a single teacher. Lauder will go down to fame, not as a painter, but as a great teacher with a wide and far-reaching influence. He set himself to teach his pupils how to see. In the Antique Class, for instance, he did not place a single figure, but a whole group of casts, before them. He insisted on a grasp of the model as a whole, in all its relations of line and colour, of light, shade, and perspective. Thus he taught his pupils that power of grouping, of seeing things broadly, of obtaining atmosphere and chiaroscuro, which is one common characteristic of their work. But he appears to have followed no cut-and-dry system, and to have made no attempt to mould his students into any uniformity, or to impress upon them his own personality and methods. Their master had the rare art of 12 JOHN PETTIE drawing out their latent powers, and directing them towards the best means of self-expression, but they were happily left to work out their own tastes and preferences. He inspired them with enthusiasm and a common devotion to high ideals, filling them with a sense of the importance and responsibility of their profession. Though Lauder's pupils preserved their individuality, they all owed much to the inspiration and magnetism of their teacher. As a School, they combined in breathing new life into Scottish art, at a period when it threatened to become listless and apathetic ; they inaugurated a fresh epoch and paved the way for later and wider endeavour. They had this in common, that their art was subjective and personal rather than conventional, and that one and all made beautiful colour their highest ideal. Though there is a melodic sweetness of tone in their work, which contrasts with the grave and grand harmonies of Lauder's style, all of them, I think, would acknowledge that of this love of colour Lauder was the fountain-head. There is an illuminating passage in a letter written by Pettie to McTaggart in November 1858 : I am the only student you know at the Academy. Lauder has persuaded me to commence a large painting of EDINBURGH DAYS 13 the skeleton. He is wild at the new system which they (Drummond, Paton, Archer) are going to begin at the Life Class, open after the New Year. He feels that their rigorous drawing and inattention in the meantime to colour imply that his system has been all wrong. Oh ! he is wild ! There were, of course, other influences at work besides that of Robert Scott Lauder. The Scottish National Gallery, with its superb Van Dycks, Gainsboroughs, and Raeburns, offered endless attractions to the young student, who spent long days there of earnest and concentrated study. The current exhibitions of the Scottish Academy contained works which were a constant stimulus. John Phillip's superb strength and brilliancy of colour must have attracted Pettie, just as it won the life-long allegiance of Chalmers. Phillip's finer work did not begin to find its way to the Edinburgh Exhibition till about 1861, when Pettie's technique was already well formed ; but the colour quality of his work, seen in Edinburgh and London during the following years of his maturity, was a spur to the younger painter, who aimed at the same ideal. " The Hour," shown at the Scottish National Exhibition this year (1908), reveals, perhaps, more than any other work by Pettie, an actual resemblance between the two 14 JOHN PETTIE painters. The colour of the somewhat olive face, the full succulent red of the dress, that seems to throw out a radiation of light, the feeling of strength rather than modulation in the handling of solid pigment, all express kinship to the work of Phillip. Both men were master colourists. In his Scottish School of Painting, Mr. W. D. McKay, though he does not deal individually with Lauder's pupils, indicates another reason why their technique shows a break from the traditions of their predecessors. He points out how in their case the broad and simple fusion of the great masters of the past is discarded for a manner partly dictated by the keen search after verisimilitude rendered necessary by the realistic mid-century movement. In the 'fifties the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites was certainly making itself felt in Edinburgh as well as in the south. Between 1852 and 1860 eleven pictures by Millais, among them " Ophelia," "Autumn Leaves," "The Blind Girl," "The Order of Release," and "The Rescue," appeared at the Scottish Academy, together with other works of the same School, such as the " Burd Helen" of Windus. And about 1861 or 1862 Holman Hunt's "Claudio and Isabella" was exhibited in Princes Street, where it made a EDINBURGH DAYS 15 strong impression on Pettie. The resolution of the Pre-Raphaehtes to cut away all convention and to turn devotedly to Nature as the one means of purifying modern art must have had a powerful effect upon the eager band of Scottish students, inspired as they were by their master s devotion to colour. Lauder's pupils differ from the Pre- Raphaelites in their grasp of atmosphere and in their exact use of broken colour, but they were undoubtedly influenced by the keen colour sense and the devotion to Nature of their English contemporaries. When Ruskin in later days likened the principal head in Pettie's " Jacobites " to the work of William Hunt, who, though not a Pre-Raphaelite, was strongly influenced by the naturalistic tendency of the times, one can quite understand what he meant ; though Pettie's virile technique is far finer than the " chopped straw " method of old William. Certain it is that while the earliest work of Lauder's pupils — that of both Pettie and Orchardson, for instance — is akin to that of their immediate predecessors, towards 1860 a closer analysis of true tones finds expression in their work by the use of broken colour, with intermingling and transitional tints echoing the dominant note. 16 JOHN PETTIE That as a School they advanced slowly t) wards their command of colour, and that Pettie ii those early days had not begun to strike those bel-notes which made his pictures sing out on any exlibition wall, is shown by a rare and interesting panphlet on "Scottish Art and Artists in 1860," vritten by " Iconoclast." At its close comes a britf note about the younger artists : Those of them who form what some call the Nev School stand much in need of caution and advice. They ae clever young men of considerable originality, several of vhom we trust yet to see highly distinguished. It would be flattery to say more, and injustice to say less. But they ae falling into affectations and vices of style which must dest»y them for ever, and this is the reason that we dedicate to tiem this short note. Their pictures want finish, and are objedionable in colour. The love of grey and grey-green exhilited by the school is ridiculous. It is their regulation colou- — their harmony of harmonies is grey agreeing with itsell With Mr. Cameron it is a disease. Mr. Pettie and Mr. M(Taggart are slowly giving up this affectation. The latter promises soon to be out of the grey school. Mr. Pettie, we d