GUTHRIE, James - b. 1859 Greenock, d. 1930 Rhu, Strathclyde

Scottish painter. He originally enrolled at Glasgow University to study law but in 1877 his father, a member of the Scottish clergy, allowed him to train as a painter under James Drummond (1816-1877). In 1878 he began work in John Pettie’s (1839-1893) studio in London where he was encouraged to produce academic history and genre paintings. Every summer from 1878 to 1881, however, Guthrie returned to Scotland to paint landscapes alongside Joseph Crawhall (1861-1913) and Edward Arthur Walton. He was influenced by the work of Jean-François Millet and the Barbizon school and in the spring of 1882 completed his first major realist painting, Funeral Service in the Highlands (Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow).

In 1882 he went to Paris, where he discovered plein-air painting and changed to a freer and brighter style, influenced by Bastien-Lepage. In 1885 he decided to give up painting after plein-air studies in Berwickshire but in 1888 he was persuaded by a cousin to paint a portrait of his father. With the exception of a few landscape in pastel, this was the start of a new and important career as a portrait painter. In his style he was influenced by his friend Whistler.

Between 1902 and 1919, he was president of the Royal Scottish Academy.

The Morning Paper

In Scotland the 1880s saw a lively interest in open-air painting. The Glasgow School, numbering some thirty members, was of key importance. Foremost in the group were James Guthrie, his fellow Scot William MacTaggart and the Irish artist John Lavery. They agreed in their opposition to prevailing Victorian taste and the methods of the Royal Scottish Academy.

Guthrie’s work brought the Glasgow School international recognition. A brief visit to Paris in 1882 left him with the lasting impact of Barbizon plein-air painting, which he would adapt to his own landscape art in the years ahead. In the mid-1880s, Guthrie entered a critical phase which resulted in his almost entirely abandoning landscapes and turning to portraits, interiors and genre work. The Morning Paper is one of the finest of his many portraits of middle-class women. Guthrie’s pastel technique here and elsewhere seemed to him (as it did to Degas) the aptest means of expression, since it was quick and easy to use and thus ideally suited to recording impressions on the spot.