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FAMOUS PEOPLE

The Arts

ROBERT COLQUHOUN (1914-1962)

Born in Kilmarnock on 20th December 1914, Robert Colquhoun is the most widely acclaimed artist which Kilmarnock has produced. He attended Kilmarnock Academy from 1927 until 1933. His school record is still preserved in the Academy. While at school he shone at art, his marks in the subject steadily rising as he progressed through the school. Even as a pupil his command of his medium was exceptional. His art teacher at Kilmarnock Academy was Mr J. Lyle.
After leaving Kilmarnock Academy, Robert won a scholarship to the Glasgow School of Art and he later studied in Italy, France, Holland and Belgium. While abroad, he and his partner - fellow Ayrshire painter Robert Bride/McBryde (1913-66) of Maybole - enjoyed playing the role of bohemian Scots. After being injured when on ambulance service in World War II, Colquhoun returned to Britain in 1941 - moving to Bedford Gardens, London with McBride. In London, the two Roberts mixed with a number of prominent figures in literary and artistic circles such as Dylan Thomas and Wyndham Lewis. During this period he and McBride designed décor and costumes for theatre and ballet productions.

Colquhoun's artistic style during the post-war era was heavily influenced by English and continental models. Like the English painter Francis Bacon, Colquhoun's vision is a tortured one. He was heavily influenced by the works of Pablo Picasso during this period and his own works show grief-laden, tortured figures. He died in London on 20 Sept 1962 and the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock held a posthumous exhibition of some of his paintings and monotypes in May 1963

ELEANOR ALLEN ROBERTSON (née Moore) (1885-1955)

Eleanor Allen Moore was born in Ireland. Her father, the Rev. Hamilton Moore, became minister of Loudoun Parish Church in 1891. Eleanor attended Kilmarnock Academy for a short time before studying at Glasgow School of Art. In 1922 she married Robert Cecil Robertson, a doctor who was also a former pupil of Kilmarnock Academy. In 1924, Robert was appointed Public Health Officer with Shanghai Municipal Council and, in Shanghai, Eleanor produced some fine watercolours of the Chinese people. She was also popular as a portrait painter for the British community in Shanghai. Inspired by the countryside around Shanghai, Robert, the son of a Kilmarnock painter and decorator, also took up painting local scenes and people. Robert and Eleanor left Shanghai in 1937 - moving to Hong Kong - eventually returning to Scotland after World War II.

Because of Eleanor's association with the Glasgow School of Art she is one of the group of painters known as 'the Glasgow Girls'. In 1997 the Dick Institute in Kilmarnock - which holds several of her works - hosted an exhibition of the works of Eleanor and Robert.