James Giles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it.
Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (January 2008)

James Giles (1801-1870) was a famous Scottish Victorian Era painter.

[edit] Life

Born January 4, James Giles was the son of a designer at the local calico printing factory at Woodside, Aberdeen. During his lifetime, Giles was among the first to be mentioned as one of the most vital of the Aberdeen artists - his patrons included the landed aristocracy of Aberdeenshire and Queen Victoria - but he has been little remembered in subsequent surveys in Scottish art. This is due in part to the fact that he spent most of his working life in Aberdeen – unlike his contemporaries who left the north-east to find fame in London.

[edit] Art

Giles was a versatile artist. He specialised in portraiture and landscape painting, but in addition was a successful landscape architect, designing a number of public gardens and monuments in Aberdeen, in addition to landscaping estates in Aberdeenshire.

However, Giles’ spiritual home was Italy, where he spent three years from 1823 to 1826. There he followed the well-trodden pathways of the 18th century Grand Tour to the many points of historic interest. The bright Italian light fascinated Giles and all of his sketches are enlivened with an impression of this Mediterranean atmosphere. The sights that he saw and recorded in Italy were to remain with him for the rest of his life. The watercolour sketches often served as an aid for the oils he would paint and exhibit on his return to Scotland.