Description
pencil and watercolour
Dimensions
28.5 x 23cm (11 1/4 x 9in)
Footnote
Note:
E.A. Taylor was born in Greenock in 1874, the fifteenth of seventeen children of an army major. After training as a draughtsman in the yards of the shipbuilders Scott and Co. Ltd, Taylor became a student of the Glasgow School of Art in the late 1890s. There he absorbed the influence of Fra Newbery and the already well-established 'Glasgow Four' before joining a firm of cabinet makers in 1900 and becoming a leading designer of furniture and stained glass in the Glasgow Style. In 1907 he became the head of furniture design with Wragge and Co. in Salford and married the illustrator and fellow Glasgow School protégé, Jessie M King, the following year. A move to Paris three years later saw Taylor become the Paris correspondent of 'The Studio' and second in command of Tudor Hart's 'Paris School of Drawing and Painting'. Before long, however, the couple established their own school, 'The Shealing Atelier', and also set up a popular summer sketching school on the Isle of Arran, which they continued to run until 1940. 'Cottages By the Sea' was most likely produced during one of these extended stays on Arran.
Returning to Scotland shortly after the outbreak of World War I they settled in Kirkcudbright, whose particular quality of light is said to have drawn many artists to reside in its picturesque streets. Cottages were converted to studios and many young artists of the day, including Dorothy Johnstone and Cecile Walton, painted there - joining older figures such as S.J. Peploe, who spoke fondly of the Taylors' warm hospitality. Although Taylor was no longer at the forefront of Scottish design he worked at a prodigious rate, particularly focusing on water colours of local scenes, some of which he reproduced as etchings. While in Paris, Taylor was influenced by contemporary French painting resulting in his work at home becoming more like that of the Colourists, with simplified forms and bold outlines. Kirkcudbright is a typical example of this period and also features a recurrent motif in his work - prominent trees cut off by the upper edge of the canvas. Latterly, he helped to found the Dumfries and Galloway Fine Art Association and was in demand as a speaker on art and also on the work of Robert Burns. With his death in 1951 an important chapter in the cultural life of Kirkcudbright's artists' colony came to a close.