John Duncan (painter)

John Duncan (1866–1945) was a Scottish Symbolist painter. His work is known for referencing Arthurian legends, Celtic folklore, and other mythological subjects.

Biography

Duncan was born in the Hilltown area of Dundee on 19 July 1866, the son of a butcher and cattleman. John, however, had no interest in the family business and preferred the visual arts. By the age of 15 he was submitting cartoons to the local magazine ''The Wizard of the North'' and was later taken on as an assistant in the art department of the '' Dundee Advertiser''. At the same time he was also a student at the Dundee School of Art, then based at the High School of Dundee. In 1887–1888 he worked in London as a commercial illustrator, then travelled to the continent to study at Antwerp Academy under Charles Verlat and the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

In 1889 Duncan returned to Dundee and exhibited in the new Victoria Art Galleries extension of the Albert Institute. The following year he became one of the founder members of the Dundee Graphic Arts Association (now Dundee Art Society). Most of his income at this time was derived from portrait commissions, including the jute merchant John L. Luke and Mrs Hunter of Hilton.

In 1892 Duncan moved to Edinburgh to work with the sociologist, botanist and urbanist Patrick Geddes, whom he had met in Dundee. As part of the Celtic Revival movement, Duncan painted murals for Geddes's halls of residence at Ramsay Garden. He also became the principal artist for Geddes's 1895–1897 seasonal magazine ''The Evergreen''. The magazine also featured work by the Dundee artist Nell Baxter and the celebrated decorative artist Robert Burns. Among other subjects, Duncan depicted ''Bacchus and Silenus'' in a mythical scene. Duncan also acted as director of Geddes's short-lived Old Edinburgh School of Art, and was commissioned by him to design the Witches' Well in Edinburgh in 1894.

In 1897 Duncan returned to Dundee and exhibited Celtic and symbolist paintings at the Graphic Arts Association as well as the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute among others. It was at this time that he painted
The Glaive of Light
' now in the University of Dundee's collection. He continued to teach art and design, at the Dundee YMCA, the University and the art school at Dundee Technical Institute. He also created Dundee's first design collective by gathering together a group of young talents who created and exhibited decorative art and design pieces for the Graphic Arts Association, including Nell Baxter, Rosa Baxter, Elizabeth Burt and Duncan's sister Jessie Westbrook.

Thanks to Patrick Geddes's influence, in 1900 Duncan was appointed as a Professor at the Chicago Institute founded by Francis Wayland Parker. His stay there was not a happy one, and after Parker's death in 1902 he returned to Scotland and settled in Edinburgh, where he would live for the rest of his life.

Duncan's last major work was entitled ''Mary Queen of Scots at Fotheringhay'' (dated 1929). The work was commissioned and is now held by the University of St Andrews. The painting was completed in spite of the critical antagonisms Duncan was facing at the time. A smaller scale replica is held in the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle.

Gallery

File:John Duncan (1912) Tristan & Isolde.jpg, ''Tristan and Isolde'' (1912)
File:John Duncan (c.1919) Archangel Uriel.jpg, ''Archangel Uriel'' (c. 1919)
File:John Duncan (c.1914) Aoife.jpg, ''Aoife'' (c. 1914)
File:John Duncan (1931) Portrait of Marjory Kennedy.jpg, ''Portrait of Marjory Kennedy'' (1931)
File:John Duncan - 007.jpg
File:John Duncan - JD05.jpg, ''Helene Schlapp – Iona''
File:John Duncan (1907) Hymn to the Rose (detail).jpg, Detail from ''Hymn to the Rose'' (1907)
File:St. Bride, John Duncan - 1913.jpg, '' Saint Bride'' (1913)
File:Riders of th Sidhe (big).jpg, ''Riders of the Sidhe'' (1911)
File:John Duncan (1924) Children of Lir.jpg, ''The Children of Lir'' (1924)
File:The taking of Excalibur, by John Duncan.jpg, ''The Taking of Excalibur''
File:John Duncan (1920) Baba and Billy.jpg, Portrait of the artist's daughter, Vivian (1920)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, John
Artists from Dundee
1866 births
1945 deaths
19th-century Scottish painters
Scottish male painters
20th-century Scottish painters
Symbolist painters
People educated at the High School of Dundee
Alumni of the University of Dundee
Art Nouveau painters
Mythological painters
Pre-Raphaelite painters
19th-century Scottish male artists
20th-century Scottish male artists