William Stewart MacGeorge

William Stewart MacGeorge ( born April 1, 1861 in Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway, † 1931 in Edinburgh) was a Scottish painter of the Late Impressionism.

Life and work

William Stewart MacGeorge was born on 1 April 1861 in Castle Douglas and was the son of the shoemaker David MacGeorge, the three men and a boy employed in his business. MacGeorge attended the Free Church School in Castle Douglas. In 1880 he enrolled at the Trustees ' Academy, an art school in Edinburgh, attended by Edward Atkinson Hornel studied. MacGeorge was a successful student and won in his second and third year the winner prize of the school. His work was exhibited in 1881 at the Royal Scottish Academy. 1883 went MacGeorge and Hornel together to Antwerp to study at the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts. There they were instructed by Charles Verlat. Again MacGeorge one of the outstanding art students. After his return to Scotland, he enrolled at the Art School of the Royal Scottish Academy, where he continued his studies and became established as an artist. In 1898 he was admitted as an associate member of the Royal Scottish Academy, 1910, he was elected a full member. His work has been exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, at the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, and at Aberdeen Artists' Society.

MacGeorge spent his life mostly between Edinburgh and Galloway. He lived in 11 Melville Place, Edinburgh during the winter and had a studio in Kirkcudbright in the summer. There he devoted himself mainly of plein air painting and was influenced significantly how many Scottish painters of this time of Jules Bastien- Lepage. His style was characterized by a pronounced naturalism. Typical of his work are informal scenes of children at play. A favorite theme was the fishermen with their nets on the River Dee at Kirkcudbright. MacGeorge married at an advanced age, the watercolor painter Mabel Victoria Elliot. They settled in Gifford near Haddington, East Lothian. MacGeorge died in 1931, leaving his widow 45 paintings.