Arthur Melville

Arthur Melville (born April 4, 1855 in Loanhead of Guthrie, Angus , Scotland , † August 28, 1904 in Witley , Surrey , England ) was a Scottish painter . He is considered one of the best watercolorists of his time.

Life

Arthur Melville was born in a village in what was then Haddingtonshire , Scotland, but grew up in East Lothian . He began painting at an early age and took evening art classes before joining John Campbell Noble's class at the RSA School.

In 1878 Melville went to Paris , where he met Robert Weir Allan , who introduced him to the work of the Impressionists . During this time he joined the group of artists working in Grez-sur-Loing , known as the Glasgow Boys , to which William York MacGregor (1855-1923), James Guthrie (1859-1930), Joseph Crawhall (1861-1913) and later, among others, also George Henry (1858-1943) and John Lavery (1856-1941) belonged. A long journey took him from 1880 to 1882 to Istanbul , Cairo , Baghdad , Karachi and back to Scotland. In 1886 and 1889 he again went on a trip to Paris, in 1890 he went to Spain and Algeria , in 1894 to Venice , before joining the circle of Graham Robertson in London . Settled in Surrey after his wedding , further trips took the unsteady artist to Spain (1899, 1904) and Italy (1802).

Arthur Melville died of typhus in 1904, shortly after returning from his last trip to Spain, at the age of 49 . His widow married the painter Théodore Roussel .

Exhibitions

• Appreciation of his work at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters , London
• 1906: Comprehensive retrospective at the Royal Institute Galleries , London

plant

Melville was educated more through practice and personal observation than through art classes. During the time he was working with the Glasgow Boys in Grez-sur-Loing , his work was under the influence of Jules Bastien-Lepage . There he also began to experiment with water colors . The influence of Frank Brangwyn , who traveled with Melville in 1892, can be felt in later works .

The main feature of his watercolors, created on damp paper, as well as the works only painted in oil in the last six years of his life, is the incomparable intensity of color with which he captured the impressions of his travels in distant countries.

Factory selection

• 1881: To Arab Interior , Edinburgh , National Galleries of Scotland
• 1882: Pilgrims on the Way to Mecca , USA, Wisconsin , Madison , Chazen Museum of Art
• 1883/89: Audrey and her Goats , Oil, London, Tate Gallery
• 1888/89: The Little Bullfight: 'Bravo Toro , watercolor, London , Victoria and Albert Museum
• 1893: A Moorish Procession, Tangier , Edinburgh, National Galleries of Scotland
• 1897: The Blue Nigt, Venice , London, Tate Gallery
• ????: To Oriental Goatherd , Weimar

Numerous works by Maleville are in private collections.

Web links

• Arthur Melville at www.geo.ed.ac.uk
• Arthur Melville at www.exploreart.co.uk ( Memento from March 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive )