James Muir Auld

Auld studied under J. S. Watkins and Julian Ashton, and began to exhibit at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales around 1906. He contributed black and white drawings to The Bulletin and The Sydney Mail. In 1909 he travelled to London to study the work of English painters. There he had work accepted for London Opinion and other journals. Returning to Australia about 1911, he worked in Sydney on landscapes and figure subjects, and also did some portraits. On 1 July 1914 Auld married a divorcee Maggie Kate Kane, née Bell.

In 1917 The Broken Vase was bought by the National Art Gallery of New South Wales. At about this time, they also purchased a portrait of the poet Roderic Quinn.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article29450619 |title=The Clark Art Exhibition |newspaper=The Mercury |volume=CXXIV |issue=18,309 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=9 July 1926 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}} He joined the Society of Artists, Sydney about 1920 and frequently exhibited with it. In the 1920s, he joined the well-known commercial art firm, Smith and Julius, and illustrated several books.

Towards the end of his life Auld spent 11 years at Thirlmere, New South Wales, living alone.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article235824542 |title=Meets good fairy: Artist saved from despair |newspaper=Smith's Weekly |volume=XVII |issue=50 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 February 1936 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=20 |via=National Library of Australia}} The surrounding Thirlmere landscape did not appear to be of an inspiring kind, but Auld's work at this period ranked with his best. Winter Morning was awarded the Wynne Prize in 1935. Auld had three one-man exhibitions at the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, in 1928, 1936 and 1938, and had also exhibited in London and Paris. Working with a palette knife, by 1938 he was expressing himself in a more delicate way with brushes.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17527128 |title=Exhibitions of art. J. Muir Auld |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=31,444 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 October 1938 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}}

He was a foundation member of the Australian Academy of Art in 1938.

Auld recalled the impact of the 1930s Great Depression caused him the 'desolation of his soul', at Dee Why, where there were no buyers with money for his pictures. At this time, tubercular trouble gave him a poor outlook of living only three months more. It was his brother-in-law, solicitor Frederick H. Greaves who then acquired the four-room 'shack' at Thirlmere for Auld, who took up an artist-hermit existence.

Auld died of tuberculosis on 8 June 1942,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article231798948 |title=Passing of Mr. J. M. AULD |newspaper=The Sun |issue=10118 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 June 1942 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=4 (Late final extra) |via=National Library of Australia}} survived by daughter Thelma. He was a sound painter in the old traditions, who would not allow himself to be disturbed by the various movements which arose between the two wars. He had good colour, and was especially interested in effects of atmosphere and sunlight, which he expressed with much vitality. He was known as 'reserved and sensitive and honest'.

Auld is represented in the Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Manly galleries.

Auld drew the covers for two anthologies, 'Fair girls' (1914) and 'Gray horses' (1914), of Scottish-Australian poet and bush balladeer Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963).

For the Archibald Prize, Auld made several submissions:

• 1922, a characteristic portrait of poet Roderic Quinn.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245824470 |title=Archibald portraits |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |issue=13,622 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 January 1923 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}} This was one of the Prize's runner-ups;

• 1923, a portrait of New Zealand pianist Frank Hutchens, in evening dress.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245903277 |title=Archibald Prize |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |issue=13,754 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 January 1924 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}} The portrait was technically satisfying.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245892373 |title=Archibald Prize |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |issue=13,758 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=12 January 1924 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}} Hutchens was also depicted in flannels by another artist. Auld also submitted a self-portrait but had a rather drab scheme;

• 1924, portrait of caricaturist George Finey, which was considered rather lifeless compared to many of Auld's other works;{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245271574 |title=The Archibald Prize |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |issue=14,069 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 January 1925 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}} and

• 1928 prize, a self-portrait.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16524714 |title=Archibald Prize |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=28,406 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=19 January 1929 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}}

His best works were considered to include 'Skydrift-Thirlmere' (1942), 'Cloudlands' (1942), 'Cloud Shadows' (1941), and 'Autumn Day' (1941), and also 'Bushland Peace' and the earlier paintings, 'Winter Morning', 'Thirlmere Landscape' and an excellent portrait of a young girl.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17810587 |title=J. Muir AULD'S work |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=32,741 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=3 December 1942 |access-date=3 October 2022 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}

File:James Muir Auld Winter Morning.jpg|Winter Morning

File:Auld-Manly.jpg|Manly, New South Wales

File:Auld-Bullock.jpg|The Bullock Driver's Home

File:Auld-Seaside.jpg|At the Seaside

{{reflist}}

• Silas Clifford-Smith, 'James Muir Auld' (peer reviewed biography), Dictionary of Australian Artists Online [http://www.daao.org.au/main/read/7887], accessed 2 January 2010.
• Bernice Murphy, '[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070127b.htm Auld, James Muir (1879–1942)]', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, MUP, 1979, p. 122.
• {{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=James Muir|Last=Auld|shortlink=0-dict-biogA.html#auld1}}
• W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art;
• Society of Artists Book, 1942;
• Death notice, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 June 1942.

{{commonscat inline|James Muir Auld}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Auld, James Muir}}

Category:1879 births

Category:1942 deaths

Category:Wynne Prize winners

Category:20th-century Australian painters

Category:20th-century Australian male artists

Category:Archibald Prize finalists

Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis

Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Australia

Category:Infectious disease deaths in New South Wales

Category:Australian male painters