Archibald Peddie
| |
|---|---|
| Born | Archibald Peddie (1917-08-15)15 August 1917 |
| Died | 2 March 1991(1991-03-02) (aged 73) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Alma mater | Glasgow School of Art |
| Known for | Expressionist painting, floral garden scenes, landscapes |
Archibald Peddie (15 August 1917 – 2 March 1991) was a Scottish painter, born in Rhu, near Helensburgh. He went to the Glasgow School of Art in 1930s. His work has received more prominence since 1998, after a media re-discovery of his art following a Kingussie hotel fire in that year.[1]
Archibald Peddie was born in Rhu, near Helensburgh, in Argyll, in 1917. His father was Archibald Peddie [Snr] (21 April 1886 - 8 February 1948), his mother Agnes Cochrane Donald (6 October 1891 - 2 March 1995); they had married in Coatbridge on 29 December 1915.
The Peddie family were well known in Helensburgh. Archibald [Snr]'s father and Archibald's grandfather was another Archibald Peddie (c.1854 - 16 July 1931), a fruiterer and florist with a shop at 70 East Princes Street, Helensburgh. He advertised as the 'sole agent for Indian Teas'. His brother John Peddie died in Assam, India on 25 April 1889, no doubt on family business.[2] The Peddie family had settled in Helensburgh in the 1840s, from Perthshire.
Archibald Peddie went to Glasgow School of Art in the 1930s. His family were ambivalent about this, and Peddie funded himself as a salmon fisherman on the River Tay.[3] He graduated in 1939, winning a travelling scholarship to Italy. Unfortunately the Second World War began and Peddie was unable to travel there.[3]
Peddie joined the Parachute Regiment in the war.
He married Elizabeth Lowe Bowman in 1943 while on leave. She was known as Betty. They had a daughter Gillian in 1946. Gillian married Leslie Waterston on 23 April 1966.[4]
At the end of the war, he returned to the Glasgow School of Art as a teacher.[1]
In 1951 he was an Art teacher at Naemoor School at Rumbling BridgeinPerth and Kinross.[5] He had an art studio on the school grounds, a converted stable.
In 1953, the Peddies moved to the nearby village of Muckhart, to look after Betty's mother. This was at the cottage Rockmount at the Yetts of Muckhart.[1]
Not long after Betty's mother died, they received an inheritance from Betty's distant aunt. This allowed them to travel to Spain in the late 1950s. They also travelled to France and Venice in the 1960s and 1970s.[1]
In 1966, the Peddies moved to Grayswalls in Denny, a converted crofthouse.[1]
The 1949 exhibition by the RGI featured a still-life by Peddie.[6]
He had work in the 1950 RSA exhibition.[7]
At his home in Rockmount, he often painted his garden and the local scenery, developing an expressionist style.[8]
He usually signed his work 'Arch Peddie' or 'AP'. Many of his paintings have dates with question marks on the back of the frame, as Peddie did not normally date his work on completion, and later just gave a rough estimate.[9]
The Duke of Gordon Hotel in Kingussie had a number of Peddie's works. Following damage after a fire, the paintings had to be restored. The hotel wished to make copies and sought the help of the Glasgow Herald newspaper in 1998. Such was Peddie's anonymity at the time, the Herald suggested that Peddie came from Edinburgh and painted hotel murals. The mural painter turned out to be Tom Peddie; but the reporting from the restorers thrust the name of Archibald Peddie into the limelight.[1]
The restorers, Alder Arts in Inverness, compared Peddie's work to that of Edward Atkinson Hornel, one of the famous 'Glasgow Boys'. The owner of Alder Arts, Ken Hardman, said 'These paintings are really excellent. Why he is not more widely known, I just don’t know'[1]
He died on 2 March 1991, at the age of 73 in Denny.[10]
Category:1917 births
Category:1991 deaths
Category:People from Helensburgh
Category:Scottish male painters
Category:Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art
