Robert Walker Macbeth (1848-1910)
| Artist Name | Robert Walker Macbeth (1848-1910) |
|---|---|
| Title | Portrait of Two Girls Stripping Willow |
| Description | This lovely Scottish Victorian portrait oil painting is by noted artist Robert Walker Macbeth. Painted circa 1900 the composition is of two young women stripping willow beside a river bank. The girl on the left is standing and stripping the willow by hand. The girl on the right is seated and has an upright tool she is feeding the willow through to remove its bark, presumably for basket weaving at a later date. Their colourful clothing is in contrast to the green backdrop of trees behind them. This is a lovely pastoral oil painting with great detail and brushwork and a good example of Macbeth's work. Signed lower right. |
| Provenance | Title and details on two labels verso. |
| Medium | Oil on Canvas |
| Size | 20 x 24 inches |
| Frame | Housed in a gilt frame, framed size is 32 inches by 28 inches and in good condition. |
| Condition | Good condition. |
| Biography | Robert Walker Macbeth RA (1848-1910) was a Scottish painter, etcher and watercolourist. His father was a portrait painter named Norman Macbeth and his niece Ann Macbeth. Two of his five brothers, James Macbeth (1847–1891) and Henry Macbeth, later Macbeth-Raeburn RA (1860–1947), were also artists. He was a member of the Idyllic school, and was important in bringing their works to a wider public through his reproductions in etching. His works were varied, and his style evolved, but not necessarily improved, over his career, as conventional sentimentality took over many paintings from the 1890s onwards. Born in Glasgow, Macbeth studied art in London, producing realistic everyday scenes and working as an illustrator for the weekly newspaper The Graphic. He painted in the Lincolnshire and Somerset countryside, his landscape work influenced by that of George Heming Mason and Frederick Walker. His The Cast Shoe was bought by the Chantrey Bequest in 1890 and is now at Tate Britain. From 1871 Macbeth exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery, and the Fine Art Society, all in Westminster. There were also exhibitions in the regions at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in Birmingham, the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester Art Gallery. In the same year (1871) Macbeth was made an associate of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) becoming a full member in 1901. He became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) in 1880, and an honorary member in 1909. In 1882 he was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) and in 1883 was elected to be a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI). In 1883 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy (RA), becoming a full member in 1903. On 9 August 1887, he married Lydia Esther Bates, daughter of General John Bates of the Bombay native cavalry. Their daughter, Phillis Macbeth, was better known as the actress Lydia Bilbrook. Their second daughter, Norma Robina Macbeth married John Thomas Hall in 1924. He died at Holder's Green, near Lindsell, Essex. |
| Price | £7000 |
