James Archer (artist)
{{Short description|Scottish painter (1823–1904)}}
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{{Use British English|date=January 2018}}
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James Archer RSA (10 June 1823 – 3 September 1904), was a Scottish painter of portraits, genre works, landscapes and historical scenes.Soden, Joanna. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/artist.aspx?artist=james-archer Works and biography of James Archer] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080330234333/http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/artist.aspx?artist=james-archer |date=2008-03-30 }} (ArtMagick)[http://goldenagepaintings.blogspot.com/2008/04/james-archer-summertime-gloucestershire.html James Archer - biography and works]
Life
James Archer was born in Edinburgh, the first of four children to Andrew Archer, a dentist, and his wife, Ann Cunningham Gregory. His sister was Georgina ArcherJoanna Soden, 'Archer, James (1822–1904)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30434, accessed 29 Dec 2016] who founded an early college for women in Germany. The family lived at 25 Hanover Street in the First New Town, close to Princes Street.EDinburgh Post Office Directory 1823
He was educated at the Royal High School and studied at the Trustee's Academy in Edinburgh under Sir William Allan and Thomas Duncan (painter). In 1840, he was accepted as a student at the Royal Scottish Academy and first exhibited there in 1842, with the biblical painting, "The Child St John in the Wilderness". He became an associate of the academy in 1850, and in 1858 an Academician (RSA).
File:York Place 21, Edinburgh.JPG
In 1844, he was listed as living at 21 York Place in Edinburgh's New Town.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1844-5. In 1848, he joined the Edinburgh Smashers Club: a sketching club (which probably also involved alcohol).{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/collections-archives/rsa-archives/|title=RSA ARCHIVES | Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture|access-date=28 July 2020|archive-date=9 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009032930/http://www.royalscottishacademy.org/collections-archives/rsa-archives/|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/archives-map/royal-scottish-academy-collections-department/|title = Royal Scottish Academy Collections Department|date = 10 September 2018}}
File:The_Death_of_King_Arthur_by_James_Archer_(1860).jpg
Archer worked in oils, pencil and chalk, and at the beginning of his career specialised in portraiture, his best-known work includes children and people in costume as its subjects - in fact, he was the first Victorian painter to do children's portraits in period costume. In 1849 he exhibited his first historical picture 'The Last Supper' at the Royal Scottish Academy. His work after that mostly consisted of scenes taken from literature or legends that were popular at the time, such as Shakespeare and King Arthur.[http://www.cinoa.org/index.pl?isa=Metadot::SystemApp::ArtistSearch;op=detail;artist=428 Biography] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721161627/http://www.cinoa.org/index.pl?isa=Metadot::SystemApp::ArtistSearch;op=detail;artist=428 |date=2011-07-21 }} (cinoa.org) In about 1859 he began to paint a series of brooding Arthurian subjects, including several versions of La Mort d'Arthur, which depict a melancholy Lancelot on horseback, being led out of the frame to his death by a hooded Merlin, as well as Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere.
In 1864, he moved to London, living at 21 Phillimore Gardens, moving in 1882 to 7 Cromwell Place.{{Cite web |url=http://www.avictorian.com/Archer_James.html |title=James Archer, RSA (1823-1904) |website=Victorian Art History |access-date=23 April 2025 |archive-date=11 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511194433/http://www.avictorian.com/Archer_James.html}} In the 1880s, Archer travelled to the United States, where he painted Andrew Carnegie's portrait, and to India, where he painted landscapes and people in costume.
Archer died on 3 September 1904 in Haslemere in Surrey. He was buried in the churchyard at Haslemere.
Family
In 1853 he married Jane Clerk Lawson, daughter of the Edinburgh lawyer James Lawson WS of 4 Malta Terrace in the Stockbridge district.Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1853 At the time of his death he had one son and three daughters.
Works
Archer mainly worked on historical and religious scenes of a figurative nature. He received multiple commissions for portraits. Notable subjects include Andrew Carnegie, James G. Blaine, Lady Dufferin, Lord Dalhousie, Sir George Trevelyan, 2nd Baronet, John Stuart Blackie, Sir Henry Irving, Edwin Arnold, and Daniel Macnee.
References
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External links
{{sister project links|display=James Archer|b=no|commonscat=James Archer|d=Q1069608|n=no|q=no|s=no|v=no|wikt=no}}
- {{Art UK bio}}
- [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/archer_james.html James Archer online] (ArtCyclopedia)
- [http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artist.php?artistid=244 Paintings by Archer] (Art Renewal Center)
- [http://www.childhoodinart.org/person.php?id=536 Summertime Gloucestershire] (childhoodinart.org)
- {{cite Men of the Time|name=Archer, James|page=48}}
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Category:19th-century Scottish painters
Category:Scottish male painters
Category:20th-century Scottish painters
Category:Scottish portrait painters
Category:Scottish landscape painters
Category:People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
Category:Alumni of the Trustees' Academy
Category:Royal Scottish Academicians