DOI Heft:
No. 332 (November 1920)
DOI Artikel:Taylor, Ernest Archibald: Some pictures by John Duncan, A. R. S. A.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21401#0154
SOME PICTURES BY JOHN
DUNCAN, A.R.S.A. a a 0
T T is as an artist whose joy lies in mystic
1 mythology and all things pertaining to
Celtic life and lore, that John Duncan,
A.R.S.A., takes a leading place among
living painters. Fully to appreciate his
art, one must be old, yet young ; old in
the knowledge of the ways of men who
were intimates of the hills and the wind
and the waves, and young enough to believe
in a fairyland to-day. To him, I do net
think the past seems very vast or far away.
And he is perhaps the one artist in the
North to whom Ossian, Carril and Ullin
and all the heroes that are no more are
still living forces. 0000
A native of Dundee, Mr. Duncan, after
a few years' study in London and Dussel-
dorf, ultimately settled in Edinburgh,
where he soon became enchanted by the
glamour of the Gael, as perhaps most
alluringly described in the works of Fiona
McLeod. It was in Edinburgh, too, that
he became closely associated with the
similarly enthusiastic Professor Patrick
Geddes, whose northern seasonal " The
Evergreen," published in 1895, contains
some most charming illustrations by Mr.
Duncan. Amongst a few that recur to
memory, those entitled Outfaring, Apollo's
Schooldays, and Jehanne d Arc et sa Garde
Ecossaise, all suggest that he, like Jeanne,
was inspired by visionary voices. It was
about that time, too, that he executed
several mural paintings in connection with
various schemes of Professor Geddes,
amongst the later outstanding ones being
those inspired by the legendary history of
Scotland in the University Hall, Edin-
burgh, and some in America. Duncan
spent two years in America as associate
professor of the teaching of Art in the
University of Chicago, and after his return
to Edinburgh in 1904, various church
decorations claimed his attention. 0 0
In succeeding years the wonderland of
the inner and outer western isles of Scot-
land has been, with Edinburgh, his
artistic homeland. Fascinated by the still
living story of those enchanted isles he
becomes one with his subjects, and some
Beltane night it would not be surprising
to find him aureoled with the fairy dew,
riding off with the Sidhe on their elfish
missions. Various are the stories told of
these fairy folk, and various, too, are the
beliefs in their good and bad influence.
They dwell, some will tell you, within the
hills or in the underworld and are never
to be seen on a moonless night, or at the
rising of the moon or when the dew is
falling, and it is not a hard thing for the
most practical of mortals to believe in
them should they be so fortunate as to
" CHRIST WALKING ON
THE SEA." BY JOHN
DUNCAN, A.R.S.A.
139
DUNCAN, A.R.S.A. a a 0
T T is as an artist whose joy lies in mystic
1 mythology and all things pertaining to
Celtic life and lore, that John Duncan,
A.R.S.A., takes a leading place among
living painters. Fully to appreciate his
art, one must be old, yet young ; old in
the knowledge of the ways of men who
were intimates of the hills and the wind
and the waves, and young enough to believe
in a fairyland to-day. To him, I do net
think the past seems very vast or far away.
And he is perhaps the one artist in the
North to whom Ossian, Carril and Ullin
and all the heroes that are no more are
still living forces. 0000
A native of Dundee, Mr. Duncan, after
a few years' study in London and Dussel-
dorf, ultimately settled in Edinburgh,
where he soon became enchanted by the
glamour of the Gael, as perhaps most
alluringly described in the works of Fiona
McLeod. It was in Edinburgh, too, that
he became closely associated with the
similarly enthusiastic Professor Patrick
Geddes, whose northern seasonal " The
Evergreen," published in 1895, contains
some most charming illustrations by Mr.
Duncan. Amongst a few that recur to
memory, those entitled Outfaring, Apollo's
Schooldays, and Jehanne d Arc et sa Garde
Ecossaise, all suggest that he, like Jeanne,
was inspired by visionary voices. It was
about that time, too, that he executed
several mural paintings in connection with
various schemes of Professor Geddes,
amongst the later outstanding ones being
those inspired by the legendary history of
Scotland in the University Hall, Edin-
burgh, and some in America. Duncan
spent two years in America as associate
professor of the teaching of Art in the
University of Chicago, and after his return
to Edinburgh in 1904, various church
decorations claimed his attention. 0 0
In succeeding years the wonderland of
the inner and outer western isles of Scot-
land has been, with Edinburgh, his
artistic homeland. Fascinated by the still
living story of those enchanted isles he
becomes one with his subjects, and some
Beltane night it would not be surprising
to find him aureoled with the fairy dew,
riding off with the Sidhe on their elfish
missions. Various are the stories told of
these fairy folk, and various, too, are the
beliefs in their good and bad influence.
They dwell, some will tell you, within the
hills or in the underworld and are never
to be seen on a moonless night, or at the
rising of the moon or when the dew is
falling, and it is not a hard thing for the
most practical of mortals to believe in
them should they be so fortunate as to
" CHRIST WALKING ON
THE SEA." BY JOHN
DUNCAN, A.R.S.A.
139