Art, Bessie MacNicol

Art Sunday;Bessie Nicol,Glasgow artist

Jan 9, '09 7:52 PM for everyone

Above painting; self portrait,
Bessie MacNicol was the most important woman artist in Glasgow at the turn of the last century; she was the eldest of twin girls born on 15th July 1869. She studied art in both Glasgow and Paris. She first attended the Glasgow School of Art at the age of 18 in 1887, and in 1896 she managed to acquire her own studio at 175 St Vincent Street. She worked from here until 1899 when she married a gynaecologist turned painter. After the wedding she moved to Hillhead to live with her husband and worked from a studio at the back of her house. Her happiness was short lived.

A Girl of the sixties.
She died on the 4th June 1904 at the age of 34, she was pregnant with her first child. Her husband attended her death and signed the death certificate.
In the late 1890s MacNicol's favourite subjects were images of young girls posing under trees in dappled sunlight. The paintings were intended to capture the youth and beauty of her subjects against a background of nature and the seasons. They are very typical of the Glasgow style of painting and were every bit as good as the more popular and better known work of the male artists of the time.

 Autumn
Her husband survived her by only a couple of years. After a couple of years in mourning he married a young singer but died a few months after the marriage.

French Girl 1895
His second wife remarried in November of the same year and sold the family house along with all of Bessie’s belongings, personal effects and paintings, also the belongings, personal effects and paintings of her late husband. This is a major factor in the lack of documentary evidence of Bessie’s work and life.

Two sisters 1899
All that remains are a few letters and photographs; there are no sketchbooks and no diaries. Her early death was considered a great loss to Scottish art, but typically for a woman artist she was almost forgotten decades later.

Under the apple tree 1899

delete reply acousticeagle wrote on Jan 11, '09 What an amazing talent for a life cut so short. I am so impressed with this artist. The 'French Girl' is just incredible. And 'Autumn' ...it's all leaves! Amazing brushwork.

delete reply asolotraveler wrote on Jan 10, '09 lovely work

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Jan 10, '09 I think I can get a large image of the Hornel painting, I'll send it along.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Jan 10, '09, edited on Jan 10, '09 veryfrank said I hadn't heard of Bessie MacNicol before, but something about the style seemed familiar. hi Frank, Thanks for taking the time to stop by and look. there was a little of her biography that I left out, and this is probably why she seems familiar. I have shown the work of Hornel (Glasgow Artist) a couple of times before and she is known to have been influenced by him. There is a very nice portrait by her of him but the only picture I could find of this was very small which is why I didn't include it. I think she studied under him for a while, I can't quite remember the details, but even if she didn't her work is very much in his style, especially in her use of paint and colour. if you look in this album 'Dance of spring is by Hornel' http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/photos/album/192/Art_Sunday_illustrations_for_Kelvingrove or if you look here you eill also see the similarities http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/93/Art_Sunday_magical_Edward_Atkinson_Hornel

delete reply starfishred wrote on Jan 10, '09 First what a nice presentation loretta.What a terrible sad story for this young family first to lose a mother in chilbirth and then such a wonderful artist and then the hubby finds someone else and then he dies wow. She was a fantastic painter so sad.

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Jan 10, '09 I hadn't heard of Bessie MacNicol before, but something about the style seemed familiar. I did some checking at some of the sites that I frequent and reproductions of her work are being offered as art posters on ALLPosters.com., among other sites. Apparently the work is public domain since the copyright was not renewed and it expired after "life, plus 70 years". toolserver.org is selling very nice copies with a great level of detail showing the wide brush strokes in the oils. I was particularly taken with the high resolution image of " Under The Apple Tree." As always, I am quite taken with the use of color.