Biographies

John MacWhirter (1839 – 1911) He was born at Slateford near Edinburgh. His father was a papermaker. He studied at Peebles School, the Edinburgh School of Design, and the Trustees Academy, he entered the Trustees Academy in 1851, where he studied under Robert Scott Lauder and John Ballantyne . In 1869 he moved to London, where he attracted the attention of Ruskin and established himself as a landscape painter and illustrator. He travelled widely in Europe and America, but was based in St. John’s Wood, London for most of his later life. He believed strongly in working directly from nature and published a book on the technique of drawing.