Portrait of James Pryde by William Nicholson, 1899

James Ferrier Pryde (1866–1941) was a British artist. A number of his paintings are in public collections, but there have been few exhibitions of his work. He is principally remembered as one of the

Beggarstaffs The Beggarstaffs, otherwise J. & W. Beggarstaff, was the pseudonym used by the British artists William Nicholson and James Pryde for their collaborative partnership in the design of posters and other graphic work between 1894 and 1899. They are ...

, his artistic partnership with William Nicholson, and for the poster designs and other graphic work they made between 1893 and 1899, which had a powerful and far-reaching influence on graphic design for many years.

Life

James Ferrier "Jimmy" Pryde was born at 23 London Street, Edinburgh, on 30 March 1866. He was the only son of the six children of David Pryde (1834–1907), who was headmaster of Edinburgh Ladies' College from 1870 to 1891, and his wife Barbara ''née'' Lauder (born 1833 or 1834), whose father William was a brother of the famous Scottish artists Robert Scott Lauder and

James Eckford Lauder James Eckford Lauder (15 August 1811 in Edinburgh – 27 March 1869 in Edinburgh) was a notable mid- Victorian Scottish artist, famous for both portraits and historical pictures. Life and work A younger brother of artist Robert Scott Laud ...

. The family moved to 10 Fettes Row, Edinburgh, in 1872. Pryde attended

George Watson's Boys' College George Watson's College is a co-educational independent day school in Scotland, situated on Colinton Road, in the Merchiston area of Edinburgh. It was first established as a hospital school in 1741, became a day school in 1871, and was merg ...

, and from 1885 to 1888 studied at the

Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...

, where he had first exhibited in 1884. He was encouraged to paint by the Glasgow school painters James Guthrie and Edward Arthur Walton. In about 1899 he went to Paris to study under William-Adolphe Bouguereau at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

, but the dismal and crowded atelier with its smell of tobacco smoke, stove-oil and human sweat did not please him, and after three months he returned to Scotland. In 1890 he went to London, and began to make

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

drawings in a style influenced by that of

James McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

. In 1899 Pryde married Marian Symons, a musician; their daughter Betty was born in 1903. The marriage ended in separation in 1914.

Work

In 1893 his sister

Mabel Mabel is an English female given name derived from the Latin ''amabilis'', "lovable, dear".Reclams Namensbuch, 1987, History Amabilis of Riom (died 475) was a French male saint who logically would have assumed the name Amabilis upon entering th ...

married William Nicholson, four years after the two had met while studying at Hubert Herkomer's school of art in Bushey, in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. In the same year Pryde and Nicholson formed the Beggarstaff partnership, which lasted until 1899, and produced innovative poster designs and signboards. Between 1894 and 1899 Pryde tried his hand as an actor, playing small parts in several plays. Ellen Terry's son Edward Gordon Craig, with whom Pryde toured Scotland in 1895, described 'Jimmy' as 'one of the best painters who ever lived' and 'one of the biggest hearts on earth'. But Craig had no illusions about Pryde's dramatic ability:

as an actor he never really existed: but the idea of acting, the idea of the theatre – or rather the smell of the place, meant a lot to him. Yes, I think he got much 'inspiration' from the boards – and the thought and feel of it all, as of a magical place ...

He was an associate of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers from 1901 and vice-president in 1921. His first one-man exhibition was held at the Baillie Gallery in 1911. He also exhibited at the Goupil Gallery, the Leicester Galleries, the Grosvenor Gallery, London Salon, New English Art Club, Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and

. In 1934 he was elected an honorary member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. His only work as a theatre designer was for a production at the Savoy Theatre of ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'' in 1930. He became ill in 1939, and died on 24 February 1941 in

St Mary Abbots Hospital St Mary Abbots Hospital was a hospital that operated from 1871 to 1992 at a site on Marloes Road in Kensington, London. History The hospital building, which was designed by Alfred Williams as a workhouse infirmary and built by John T. Chappell, ...

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

. He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.

Reception

Pryde did not belong to any artistic school or movement. His work was highly regarded in his lifetime; in 1922 Frank Rutter, in his ''Some Contemporary Artists'', described him as "stupendous". He had only two one-man shows, in 1911 at the Baillie Gallery and in 1933 at the Leicester Galleries. In 1949 an Arts Council Memorial Exhibition toured Edinburgh, Brighton and London. His work as a painter received little subsequent attention until 1992, when an exhibition was held at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pryde, James British poster artists 1866 births 1941 deaths Scottish scenic designers Scottish lithographers Nicholson arts family Académie Julian alumni

Life

Work

Reception

References

Further reading

External links