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Lot Essay
Painted in 1902, this picture celebrates the happy family life that Lorimer found on his return to Kellie Castle in Fife after a protracted stay in London. Although he never married, his extended family remained central to the artist's life, and provided him with much inspiration. Here the children depicted are probably his nieces and nephew: the daughters and infant son of his sister Alice, namely Nan, Elsie, Esther and Pat. The gardener was named Torrie, and the scene is probably set just south of the castle, to the east of the drive.
Although bequeathed by the artist to Kirkton Manor Village Hall, the picture has been hanging at Kellie, now owned by the National Trust for Scotland, for the last fifteen years. The castle was acquired by the artists's father in 1878. James Lorimer was a distinguished international lawyer and political philosopher who was Professor of Public Law at the University of Edinburgh from 1862. Afflicted by asthma he often took holidays in the bracing air of Fife, and discovered the dilapidated castle while staying at the nearby Priory of Pittenweem. He negotiated with its owner, the Earl of Mar and Kellie, to take it on an improving lease of thirty-eight years, the longest period for which it was possible at that time to let a house in Scotland. The Earl agreed to make the castle windproof and water-tight, while the Professor undertook all internal restoration, and such improvements as he felt necessary, paying the modest rent of £25 per annum. In retrospect, the restoration of Kellie acquires considerable significance, for it was almost the first derilict building in Scotland to be sympathetically repaired with a view to preserving its original structure and character.
The restoration of the castle made a profound impression on the artist's brother, Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864-1929) and determined the course of his career. He became Scotland's last great architect in the Romantic tradition, and was knighted by Edward VII in 1904. The artistic streak continued to his sister Hannah, a distinguished needlewoman, and nephew Hew, a sculptor. An exhibition celebrating the family's artistic achievements, The Lorimers: A Family of the Arts in Fife, was held at the Crawford Center for the Arts, St. Andrews in 1983.
The third of six children, John Henry Lorimer was educated at the Academy and University in Edinburgh before studying art at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1875. He remained there for four years and was taught by William McTaggart and George Chalmers, both respected Academicians. He then travelled extensively in Europe studying the Old Masters in Holland, France, Italy and Spain. In 1886 he spent four months in the fashionable Paris atelier of Carolus-Duran, where Sargent had been a student a decade earlier.
Lorimer began to exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1873. He was elected an associate in 1882 and a full academician in 1900. From 1878 he also showed regularly at the Royal Academy in London, although he was never a member. He also enjoyed considerable success in Paris where he was awarded a number of medals. Two of his pictures were bought for the Luxembourg, and he was made a corresponding member of the Institute in 1903, the year after this picture was painted.
The present picture, which has never previously been offered for sale, is typical in its impressionistic handling, and in what the critic R.A.M. Stevenson (brother of the novelist Robert Louis) termed the artist's 'wonderful and quite original perception of the tones of light'.
We are grateful to William Lorimer for his help with this catalogue entry.
Although bequeathed by the artist to Kirkton Manor Village Hall, the picture has been hanging at Kellie, now owned by the National Trust for Scotland, for the last fifteen years. The castle was acquired by the artists's father in 1878. James Lorimer was a distinguished international lawyer and political philosopher who was Professor of Public Law at the University of Edinburgh from 1862. Afflicted by asthma he often took holidays in the bracing air of Fife, and discovered the dilapidated castle while staying at the nearby Priory of Pittenweem. He negotiated with its owner, the Earl of Mar and Kellie, to take it on an improving lease of thirty-eight years, the longest period for which it was possible at that time to let a house in Scotland. The Earl agreed to make the castle windproof and water-tight, while the Professor undertook all internal restoration, and such improvements as he felt necessary, paying the modest rent of £25 per annum. In retrospect, the restoration of Kellie acquires considerable significance, for it was almost the first derilict building in Scotland to be sympathetically repaired with a view to preserving its original structure and character.
The restoration of the castle made a profound impression on the artist's brother, Robert Stodart Lorimer (1864-1929) and determined the course of his career. He became Scotland's last great architect in the Romantic tradition, and was knighted by Edward VII in 1904. The artistic streak continued to his sister Hannah, a distinguished needlewoman, and nephew Hew, a sculptor. An exhibition celebrating the family's artistic achievements, The Lorimers: A Family of the Arts in Fife, was held at the Crawford Center for the Arts, St. Andrews in 1983.
The third of six children, John Henry Lorimer was educated at the Academy and University in Edinburgh before studying art at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1875. He remained there for four years and was taught by William McTaggart and George Chalmers, both respected Academicians. He then travelled extensively in Europe studying the Old Masters in Holland, France, Italy and Spain. In 1886 he spent four months in the fashionable Paris atelier of Carolus-Duran, where Sargent had been a student a decade earlier.
Lorimer began to exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1873. He was elected an associate in 1882 and a full academician in 1900. From 1878 he also showed regularly at the Royal Academy in London, although he was never a member. He also enjoyed considerable success in Paris where he was awarded a number of medals. Two of his pictures were bought for the Luxembourg, and he was made a corresponding member of the Institute in 1903, the year after this picture was painted.
The present picture, which has never previously been offered for sale, is typical in its impressionistic handling, and in what the critic R.A.M. Stevenson (brother of the novelist Robert Louis) termed the artist's 'wonderful and quite original perception of the tones of light'.
We are grateful to William Lorimer for his help with this catalogue entry.