David Abercrombie Donaldson (1916–1996) was a 20th century Scottish artist who served as official

Painter and Limner The Painter and Limner is a member of the Royal Household in Scotland. Appointments of Court Painters are recorded from 1581 onwards, and the post of Painter and Limner was created in 1702 for George Ogilvie. The duties included "drawing pictures ...

to Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland, an ancient title of the Scottish Court.

Life

Donaldson was born in

Chryston Chryston is a village in North Lanarkshire, around east of Glasgow, in Scotland. It lies north of its sister village, Muirhead, which is on the A80. The village has around double Muirhead's population, although the exact boundary between the ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...

in 1916 but raised in

Coatbridge Coatbridge ( sco, Cotbrig or Coatbrig, gd, Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. Along with neighbouring town Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Airdrie, Coatbrid ...

, where his family worked in the

rolling mills In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...

. He attended Coatdyke Primary School and was raised in the Baptist Church. He studied at

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; gd, Sgoil-ealain Ghlaschu) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, an ...

from 1932–37 and won the Director’s Prize in 1936. He was awarded the

Haldane Travelling Scholarship in 1937 and went abroad for the first time in his life to visit Paris and Florence. When Donaldson returned to

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

he undertook another year of study at

, the equivalent of a post-graduate year awarded to outstanding students on completion of their diploma. The Empire Exhibition of 1938 was held in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park. Scotland’s schools of art were employed to decorate pavilions and Donaldson painted a large scale mural which did not survive the demolition of the exhibition. With the declaration of war in 1939 Donaldson was excused military service. He continued to teach his night-school classes but as staff from the art school went off to serve in the forces he graduated to teaching first and second year students. In 1941 he won the important Guthrie Award at the Royal Scottish Academy's annual exhibition. In 1942 he married Kathleen Maxwell, illustrator and actress, and in 1943 their son, David, was born. Their marriage was short and after their divorce he married Maria Krystyna Mora-Szorc in 1948, a pianist and painter, born in Warsaw in 1929 and with whom he had two daughters, Sally and Caroline. Eventually, in 1944 he was appointed a full-time lecturer and a permanent member of staff at

. He was appointed Head of Drawing and Painting at the Glasgow School of Art in 1967. He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1951 and a full Member in 1956. He was elected member of the

Royal Society of Portrait Painters The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture. Its Annual Exhibition of portraiture is held at Mall Galleries, and it runs a commissi ...

in 1964. The University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow both conferred honorary degrees upon him. David Donaldson died during his 80th Birthday Retrospective Exhibition which was held firstly at the University of Edinburgh's Talbot Rice Gallery and then the Glasgow School of Art in August1996. This was also the year in which he was awarded the City of Glasgow Lord Provost’s Award for the Visual Arts and his biography by W. Gordon Smith'David Donaldson - Painter and Limner to Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland' by W. Gordon Smith, Mainstreem Publishing (Edinburgh) Ltd., (hardback), (paperback) was published.

Known Works

Donaldson was commissioned to paint the Queen in 1966. He was appointed

to Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland in 1977. Amongst his other notable subjects were Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

and many prominent figures in Scottish public life, such as Sir

John Greig Dunbar Sir John Greig Dunbar, DL, JP (19 September 1906 – 4 January 1978) was a Scottish businessman and Conservative politician who served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1960 to 1963. Life Dunbar was born at Elgin House near the top of Easter Roa ...

Lord Provost of Edinburgh The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh is the convener of the City of Edinburgh local authority, who is elected by the city council and serves not only as the chair of that body, but as a figurehead for the entire city, ex officio the ...

. His work is represented in public collections worldwide.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Donaldson, David 1996 deaths 1916 births 20th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters 20th-century Scottish male artists