Emily Murray Paterson RSW SWA (1855–1934) was a Scottish artist, connected with the Glasgow School and member of the Society of Women Artists.

Life and work

Emily Paterson was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1855. Her father, Duncan Wilkie Paterson SSC (1827-1911) was a solicitor from

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

. He was a partner of Lindsay & Paterson at 24 Dublin Street in Edinburgh. Her mother was Anne Fleming Stephen (1827-1909). Emily studied at the Edinburgh College of Art as well as in Paris and lived at Albyn Place, Edinburgh before moving to London in 1917.Catalogue of the Exhibition of Scottish Art: 1939 (Published by Royal Academy of Arts, 1939) She travelled widely between 1909 and 1934. Shortly after the end of World War One, she visited the former battlefields at Ypres in Belgium. Her watercolours of ruined churches and other destroyed buildings from there, including views of the

Ypres Cloth Hall The Cloth Hall ( nl, Lakenhal/Lakenhalle) is a large cloth hall, a medieval commercial building, in Ypres, Belgium. It was one of the largest commercial buildings of the Middle Ages, when it served as the main market and warehouse for the Flemish ...

, were shown in London in 1919. Paterson also visited the Netherlands and Italy on a number of occasions and was a keen Alpine walker, often making painting trips to both the Tyrol and

Swiss Alps The Alpine region of Switzerland, conventionally referred to as the Swiss Alps (german: Schweizer Alpen, french: Alpes suisses, it, Alpi svizzere, rm, Alps svizras), represents a major natural feature of the country and is, along with the Swiss ...

and exhibiting the resulting works at the Alpine Club in London. Her favoured subjects were landscapes, architecture and botany. She was elected member of the

Royal Scottish Watercolour Society The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (RSW) is a Scottish organisation of painters. The first preliminary meeting of the society took place in Glasgow on 21 December 1877 as a reaction to a lack of interest in watercolour art by ...

, Scottish Artists' Society and the Society of Women Artists. Paterson died in London on 23 July 1934 - a memorial exhibition was held at Walker's Gallery, London later the same year. She was returned to Edinburgh for burial with her parents in

Dean Cemetery The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...

. The grave faces the small western entrance and is designed by

Stewart McGlashan Stewart McGlashan or McGlashen(1807–1873) was a Scottish sculptor and mason, responsible for creating the company Stewart McGlashen (sic) which flourished from 1842 to 1974. He was responsible for devising a series of machines capable of cr ...

& Co.

Exhibitions

Paintings exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

, London *1909 - The Giudecca, Venice *1910 - The Church, Dordrecht *1911 - Ponte del Canonica, Venice *1911 - Noon: St Mark's, Venice *1913 - Edge of the wood *1913 - The green ship, Venice *1914 - In Picardy *1914 - San Gregorio, Venice *1916 - Wengen: winter *1916 - Winter: Hyde Park *1918 - Bernese Oberland *1926 - The windmill on the Maas, Dordrecht *1927 - A bouquet *1928 - A bouquet of flower *1929 - Begonias *1930 - Roses *1934 - The Church, Dordrecht

Collections

Her work can be found in many public and private collections including the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

Manchester Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a municipally-owned public museum and art gallery in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. It is part of the "Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton and Hove". It is free for local residents ...

, Ulster Museum, Wolverhampton Art Gallery and the

McLean Museum and Art Gallery MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John). The clan surname is an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic "Mac Gille Eathain" ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Paterson, Emily Murray 1855 births 1934 deaths 19th-century Scottish painters 20th-century Scottish painters 19th-century Scottish women artists 20th-century Scottish women artists Artists from Edinburgh Alumni of the Edinburgh College of Art Scottish landscape artists Scottish watercolourists Scottish women painters British women watercolourists 20th-century women painters