Mary Cameron (painter)

Mary Cameron in her studio

Mary Cameron (1865 - 1921) was a Scottish artist who painted portraits of mainly Spanish scenes. She exhibited fifty-six works at the Royal Scottish Academy between 1886 and 1919.

Life

Mrs. Blair with her Dogs
The grave of the Cameron family, Dean Cemetery

Mary Margaret Cameron[1] was born on 9 March 1865 in Portobello, Midlothian, Scotland, the daughter of Duncan Cameron and Mary Brown Small.[2] Her father was associated with the Edinburgh, Scotland printing and stationery firm of Macniven and Cameron and the inventor of the "Waverley" pen nib.[1] Her father also owned The Oban Times newspaper. Her mother was a member of the Smalls of Dirnanean of Perthshire, Scotland.

Cameron showed an early inclination towards art and studied in Edinburgh and Paris.[3] She took classes at the Edinburgh Veterinary College to perfect her understanding of animal anatomy, including horses.[4] She painted many Spanish scenes, particularly bullfights,[1] and lived for a time in Madrid and Seville. She generated controversy in her native Scotland over her realistic portrayal of the sometimes brutal bullfighting scenes.[5]

Cameron was a member of the Edinburgh Ladies' Art Club and later involved with the Royal Scottish Academy.[4] She exhibited fifty-six works at the Royal Scottish Academy between 1886 and 1919.[6][7] Her painting, Portrait de Mme. Blair et ses borzois received a "Mention Honorable" at The Paris Salon in 1904.[3] The winning portrait depicted her sister Flora seated with her two Russian Borzoi dogs at either side.[4] With one of her Spanish paintings and another work it was illustrated in the book Women Painters of the World (1905).[8] Cameron was the younger sister of Flora Macaulay, editor of The Oban Times newspaper.

In addition to being a talented artist, Cameron was also a capable linguist.[9] Cameron was able to speak French and Spanish fluently.[4] She also had a good knowledge of German and Italian, and knew enough Russian to read and translate it.[4]

Mary Cameron was the wife of Alexis Millar,[10] a horse dealer and jobmaster in Edinburgh. The couple were married at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London on 30 June 1905.[10] Mary Cameron died at Turnhouse, a hamlet immediately west of the Edinburgh city boundary (now the site of Edinburgh Airport), on 15 February 1921,[9] and is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. The grave lies in the obscured southern terrace, towards the east end.

Legacy

Cameron has a small number of paintings in British national collections.[11]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Reynolds, Sian (2007). Paris-Edinburgh: Cultural Connections in the Belle Epoque. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 61. Taking the Boat-Train to Mountparnasse
  2. ↑ "Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950". Family Search, Church of Latter Day Saints. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Caw, Sir James Lewis (1908). Scottish painting, past and present, 1620-1908. Edinburgh, Scotland: T. C. and E. C. Jack. p. 429. Retrieved 16 February 2013. The Figure-Painters
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Helland, Janice (2000). Professional women painters in nineteenth-century Scotland : commitment, friendship, pleasure. Aldershot [u.a.]: Ashgate. pp. 151–169. ISBN 0754600688.
  5. ↑ "Mary Cameron, Scotch Artist, is Severely Criticised for Painting Spanish Bull Fights". The Milwaukee Sentinel. 17 July 1910. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  6. ↑ "McTear's Auctioners". Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  7. ↑ Ballin, Ada S. (1904). "Womanhood, Volume 12". Office of Womanhood, Strand, London, England. p. 109. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
  8. ↑ Women Painters of the World, online from gutenberg.org, pages 124, 131, 155,
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Births, Deaths, Marriages". The Scotsman, Edinburgh Scotland. 18 February 1921. p. 10.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Cameron, Mary, Millar, Alexis. "London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597-1921". Ancestry.com, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
  11. ↑ Paintings by Mary Cameron at the BBC Your Paintings site

External links