John Pettie, R.A., H.R.S.A. Sixteen examples in colour of the artist's work — Context and Discussion

They were destined to form a School which breathed new life into Scottish art and inaugurated a fresh epoch. All of them gave free expression to their own personality, but one and all made beautiful colour their highest ideal.

In 1858 Pettie exhibited his first picture at the Royal Scottish Academy; and in 1860 made his first venture at the Royal Academy in London with "The Armourers," which was hung on the line. It was followed in 1861 by "What d' ye lack, madam?" a picture of the saucy 'prentice in Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel." With the exhibition of this picture his success was assured, and the encouragement he received led him to leave the North and seek his future in the greater world of London.

In 1862 we find Pettie sharing a studio in Pimlico with Orchardson and Tom Graham. A year later, taking C. E. Johnson in their company, they moved to 37, Fitzroy Square, a house afterwards tenanted by Ford Madox Brown. I have before me a solemn agreement dated September 18, 1863: "We, W. Q. Orchardson, J. Pettie, and T. Graham, agree to each other that we shall pay the following proportions of rent for house, No. 37, Fitzroy Square (W. Q. Orchardson, L66 13s.; John Pettie, L56 13s.; T. Graham, L41 13s.), or in these proportions whether of increase or reduction." Here they lived a happy Bohemian existence, with guinea-pigs running about the studio floor; their cash-box an open drawer where bank-notes, gold and silver were mixed in cheerful confusion with bottles of varnish and tubes of colour; their general factotum one Joe Wall, a retired prize-fighter, who had been model to Landseer and Frith.

To the two years spent in Fitzroy Square, and to the ten years following, belong several of Pettie's finest works. His keen perception of dramatic incident, his fine sense of colour, and his brilliance of craftsmanship, soon drew the attention they deserved. In 1865 his "Drum-head Court-Martial" was one of the pictures before which visitors clustered daily when it hung on the Academy walls. It is a dashing picture, full of spirit in idea and design; and the artist seldom painted anything better, or more full of character, than the heads of those commanders sitting in judgment.

In the following year, at the early age of twenty-seven, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, winning the coveted honour eighteen months before his friend and companion, Orchardson. With "Treason," exhibited in 1867, he burst into a triumph of dramatic intensity and glowing colour. The picture has a grip and unity of conception that places it on a higher level than any of his previous works. To the three following years belong such fine subjects as "The Sally" and "The Flag of Truce," which, with "Treason," are now in the Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; the "Tussle with a Highland Smuggler"; and "Touchstone and Audrey." "Rejected Addresses," exhibited in 1870, has all Pettie's charm of colour and fluent brushwork.

Among other comedies in little, touched with light fancy and the joy of life, are "A Storm in a Teacup" and "Two Strings to Her Bow." The latter is one of Pettie's happiest pieces of pure sentiment, persuasive in its natural charm and its touch of romance. Light-hearted gaiety and the ecstasy of existence sing in rippling music from lines and colours vibrant with joy.

In 1874 Pettie was elected a Royal Academician, filling the vacancy caused by the death of Sir Edwin Landseer. His first exhibits were two of his finest works, "A State Secret," and "Ho! Ho! Old Noll!" The scene in the latter is a tennis-court where two cavaliers are looking on with a chuckle of amusement at the spirited caricature which a third has made upon the wall. "Ho! Ho! Old Noll" is the work of a master draughtsman. The light pose and easy grace of the cavalier who makes the sketch, the foreshortening of his arm, the hand that holds the chalk--so lightly that it seems to move--are all superbly rendered. Two years later, in 1876, he exhibited "The Step," a picture of a little girl with golden hair, in a pale blue dress, dancing before her grandmother. The same old lady, with spinning-wheel and high-backed chair, formed the subject of a picture titled "Grandmother's Memories."