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| Unsigned portrait of Arthur Melville watercolour 47 x 36.8 cm |
Arthur Melville (1858–1904) was a Scottish painter of Orientalist subjects, among others.
He was born in Guthrie, Anngus in 1858 and brought up in East Lothian. He took up painting while working as a grocer's apprentice, and then attended the Royal Scottish AcademySchools before studying in Paris and Greece. The colour sense, which is so notable a feature of his work developed during his travels in Persia, Egypt and Turkey between 1880 and 1882,where he sometimes travelled alone on long inland journeys. To convey strong Middle Eastern light, he developed a technique of using watercolour on a base of wet paper with gouache (bodycolour) applied to it.
Melville, though comparatively little known during his lifetime, was one of the most powerful influences in the contemporary art of his day, especially in his broad decorative treatment with watercolour, which influenced the Glasgow Boys. Though his vivid impressions of colour and movement are apparently recorded with feverish haste, they are the result of careful deliberation and selection. He was at his best in his watercolours of Eastern life and his Venetian scenes, but he also painted several striking portraits in oils and a powerful composition of The Return from the Crucifixion which remained unfinished at his death in 1904. The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of his watercolours, The Little Bull-Fight Bravo, Toro! and others, like An Oriental Goatherd in the Weimar Museum are in many museums, especially in Scotland. Many of his pictures remain with private collectors.
A comprehensive memorial exhibition of Melville's works was held at the Royal Institute Galleries in London in 1906.
For a full biography and for earlier works by Arthur Melville, see part 1 also.
This is part 2 of 3 parts on the works of Arthur Melville:
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| 1885 The Red Poppies oil on canvas 61 x 76.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1885 The Sower (Souvenir de Millet) watercolour on paper 19 x 27.3 cm Private Collection |
The above watercolour after Jean-Francois Millet's "The Sower":
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| 1850-70 The Sower pastel and crayon on paper 43.5 x 53.5 cm Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1885 The Wounded Covenanter watercolour 78 x 55 cm Private Collection |
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| 1886 The End Hole, Dunbar watercolour on paper 31.8 x 48.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1888 Arabs Returning from a Raid watercolour 54.5 x 76.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1888 Castle Lachlan watercolour on paper 26.7 x 36.8 cm Private Collection |
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| 1888 The Fête of the Dosseh watercolour on paper 66 x 99.1 cm Private Collection |
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| 1888 The Sign of the White Horse Inn watercolour and gouache on paper 34.3 x 41.9 cm The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK |
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| 1888-89c The Little Bullfight: 'Bravo Toro' watercolour 56 x 77.5 cm The Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
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| 1888c Arabs Returning from a Raid watercolour 30 x 44.5 cm |
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| 1889 Street in Paris watercolour 36.9 x 54.4 cm Private Collection |
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| 1889 The Faggot Collector oil on canvas 99 x 65 cm Falmouth Art Gallery, UK |
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| 1889 The Lawn Tennis Party at Marcus pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour 45.7 x 72.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1890 After the Play pastel on oatmeal paper 99 x 58.4 cm |
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| 1890 Gitana (Gypsy) Dancing Girl, Granada oil on canvas 32.3 x 20.9 cm Private Collection |
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| 1890 Southwold Beach, Suffolk pastel 25.4 x 30.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1890 Standing Stones watercolour 17.5 x 27.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1890 The Alhambra at Granada watercolour |
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| 1890 The Canyon, Ronda (Spain) watercolour on paper 22.9 x 15.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1890 The Mosque of Córdoba watercolour on paper 17.8 x 24.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1890 The Procession of the Corpus watercolour and gouache on paper 68.6 x 50.8 cm Private Collection |
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| 1891 A By-Way in Granada watercolour 64.4 x 74 cm |
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| 1891 A Spanish Dancing Girl watercolour on paper 94 x 72.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1891 A Spanish Sunday, Going to the Bullfight oil on canvas 82 x 98 cm University of Dundee Fine Art Collection, Scotland, UK |
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| 1891 Waiting for the Sultan watercolour on paper 53.3 x 75.7 cm Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, UK |
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| c1891 A Spanish Bullfight oil on canvas McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock, Scotland, UK |
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| c1891 Night, Spain oil on canvas 81.2 x 96.8 cm Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, UK |
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| 1892 A Mediterranean Port watercolour 50.8 x 78.7 cm Glasgow Museums; Art Gallery & Museum. Kelvingrove, Scotland |
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| 1892 A Woman of Aragon watercolour on paper 42 x 30.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1892 Boy on a Mule oil on panel 30.4 x 39.4 cm |
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| 1892 Interior of Seville Cathedral watercolour 50 x 78 cm |
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| 1892 José Moreno (aka A Spanish Muleterr) oil on panel 43.2 x 32.4 cm Private Collection |
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| 1892 Passages oil on panel 15.3 x 22.9 cm Private Collection |
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| 1892 Pedrola oil on panel 30.5 x 42 cm Private Collection |
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| 1892 The Bed of a Stream, Spain pencil and watercolour on paper 50.7 x 76.4 cm Private Collection |
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| 1892 The Contrabandista oil on canvas 100 x 81.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1892c Orange Market, Puerta de los Pasajes watercolour on paper 50.7 x 75 cm Feling Collection, London |
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| 1893 A Highland Burn watercolour 59.6 x 85.1 cm Fleming Collection, London |
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| 1893 A Moorish Marriage Procession, Tangier watercolour on paper 59.3 x 79.8 cm National Galleries Scotland, UK |
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| 1893 Autumn, Loch Lomond watercolour 59 x 85 cm Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, UK |
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| 1893 Brig O' Turk watercolour 60.9 x 86.3 cm The Robertson Collection, Orkney, UK |
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| 1893 Tangiers watercolour 86.3 x 60.9 cm Private Collection |
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| 1893 The Orange Market, Zaragoza watercolour on paper 51 x 68 cm Private Collection |
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| 1893 The Valley of the Darro pencil and watercolour 85.7 x 60.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1894 A Sirocco Day watercolour 84 x 58.5 cm Dumfriesshire Educational Trust, Scotland |
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| 1894 Sails Against the Morning Sky, Venice pencil and watercolour 83.3 x 58.4 cm Private Collection |
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| 1894 The Rialto, Venice watercolour 58.4 x 83.8 cm Private Collection |
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| 1894 The Soko, Tangiers watercolour 59.5 x 85 cm Private Collection |
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| 1895 The Capture of a Spy watercolour on paper 52 x 72 cm Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, UK |
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| 1896 Horse Fair at Salen, Mull watercolour on paper 21.6 x 29.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1896 Miss Doris Spence oil on canvas 137 x 91.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1897 A Spanish Fishing Village watercolour 51 x 61 cm |
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| 1897 The Blue Night, Venice watercolour and gouache on board 86.4 x 61 cm Tate, London |