Rory McEwen

Roderick "Rory" McEwen (born March 12, 1932 in Marchmont House , Greenlaw , Scottish Borders , † October 16, 1982 in South Kensington , London , England ) was a Scottish painter and folk musician .

biography

Rory McEwen was the fourth of seven children - six brothers and one sister - of Sir John Helias Finnie McEwen and his wife Bridget Mary Lindley. The father was a landowner and conservative politician who was made a baronet . The mother was the daughter of the diplomat Sir Francis Oswald Lindley and granddaughter of the botanist and illustrator John Lindley.

Early years

Rory McEwen was first home educated and then attended Eton College , where Wilfrid Blunt was one of his teachers; Blunt called McEwen perhaps the most gifted artist he ever got his hands on ( perhaps the most gifted artist to pass through my hands ). At the age of 18, he began his two-year military service with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders, which took him to Egypt . He then graduated from Trinity College , Cambridge .

Rory McEwen had started painting flowers and plants at a young age. In 1955 eight of his watercolors were published in a botanical work by C. Oscar Moreton. In addition, McEwen was interested in traditional music. Rory had come to know and appreciate the blues and jazz through his eldest brother, Jamie .

America

In 1956, Rory McEwen traveled to New York with his younger brother Alexander to cross the United States . They wanted to earn the money for the rest of the journey through musical performances.

First they lived with Alice Astor (1902–1956) and her daughter Romana. Alice was the daughter of John Jacob Astor IV , the founder of the Astoria Hotel (later Waldorf-Astoria ), who had died in the sinking of the Titanic . Romana's father was Alice Astor's second husband, Raimund von Hofmannsthal (1906–1974), son of Hugo von Hofmannsthal .

The two brothers looked for and found the widow of the blues musician Leadbelly . They also met blues and folk veterans such as Ramblin 'Jack Elliott and Reverend Gary Davis . The brothers traveled to Los Angeles via Washington , Atlanta , New Orleans , El Paso , Santa Fe and San Francisco . They recorded two albums, Great Scottish Ballads (1956) and Scottish Songs and Ballads (1957). They made several television appearances, including on the Ed Sullivan Show. In 1958 the brothers recorded the album Folksong Jubilee together with the Scottish singer and actress Isla Cameron .

Show business

Back in London , Rory McEwen worked for Spectator magazine and the BBC . His appearances on the "Tonight" show, where he performed his own pieces of music, made him popular. In 1958 he married his New York hostess Romana von Hofmannsthal, with whom he subsequently had four children, three daughters and a son.

The McEwens' apartment in London became a meeting place for artists and art lovers. Guests included Bob Dylan as well as the Beatles ; George Harrison is said to have received sitar lessons from Ravi Shankar in his apartment .

From 1959 to 1963 Rory McEwen had his own television show "Hullabaloo", in which he presented folk and blues. The show is seen as the forerunner of Later ... with Jools Holland ; Holland is married to McEwen's youngest daughter, Christabel. Rory gave sold-out live concerts with his brother Alexander, who also had a TV show.

painter

From 1963 Rory McEwen devoted himself again to painting. He illustrated another book by C. Oscar Moreton (1964) and a publication by his former teacher Wilfrid Blunt. Apart from a few forays into abstract painting, flowers and plants remained the main theme of McEwen.

In 1970 McEwen filmed Joseph Beuys on his expedition into the Rannoch moor . McEwen's friends included the artists Jim Dine , Brice Marden , Cy Twombly , David Novros, George Melly , Alastair Reid and Kenneth Koch.

Sickness and death

In 1979 Rory McEwen was operated on for the first time for cancer . In 1982 the disease broke out again. One brain tumor was operated on in July, but another was inoperable. On October 16, McEwen left his Chelsea apartment unnoticed and threw himself in front of an approaching train at South Kensington Underground Station .

Aftermath

Rory and Alex McEwen influenced the development of many musicians, including Billy Connolly , Van Morrison and Eric Burdon .

McEwen's paintings were shown in numerous exhibitions around the world during his lifetime. In 1988 there was a first major retrospective in the Serpentine Gallery . From May 11th to September 22nd 2013 the Kew Gardens showed the exhibition "Rory McEwen: The Colors of Reality". The book of the same name, edited by Martyn Rix, was also published.

Works

Discography

• Folk Song Today (1955), compilation with a piece by Alex and Rory McEwen: Bonnie George Campbell
• Great Scottish Ballads (1956), Alex and Rory McEwen
• Scottish Songs and Ballads (1957), Alex and Rory McEwen
• Folksong Jubilee (1958), Alex and Rory McEwen with Isla Cameron
• Four for Fun (1963), Alex and Rory McEwen with Richard Fariña and Carolyn Hester
• Songs Poems Prints (1969), Rory McEwen with Jim Dine: Songs, Poems and Prints

Book illustrations

• C. Oscar Moreton: Old Carnations and Pinks (1955)
• C. Oscar Moreton: The Auricula, It's History and Character (1964)
• Wilfrid Blunt: Tulips and Tulipomania

Paintings and drawings

Works by Rory McEwen can be found in private collections around the world as well as in important museums, including the British Museum , the Victoria and Albert Museum , the Tate Gallery , the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh , the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and many more.

Web links

• Rory McEwen at Allmusic (English)
• Rory McEwen at Discogs (English)
• Rory McEwen in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Roderick McEwen on thepeerage.com , accessed September 18, 2016.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} Rory McEwen: The Colors of Reality ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . About the exhibition in the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) , May 11th to September 22nd, 2013 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Music Hiding in the Air. A Memoir of Rory McEwen (1932-1982) . Christian McEwen's memories of her uncle Rory
4. ↑ ^{a b} Alexander and Rory McEwen in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (English)