George Fiddes Watt, R.S.A. 1873-1960

George Fiddes Watt established his reputation as an artist by painting portraits in the tradition of Raeburn and Watson-Gordon. He made occassional forays into landscape painting, particularly inspired by the countryside around the River Dee. As the present lot and lot 881 demonstrate, his less formal figurative work was also extremely successful and touchingly sensitive.

Fiddes Watt was initially apprenticed to an Aberdeen lithographer before training at Grays School of Art from 1894 to 1897. After graduation from Grays, Fiddes Watt enrolled at the Royal Scottish Academy Schools in Edinburgh where he was awarded the Chalmers Bursary for painting. Fiddes Watt became extremely popular as a portrait artist, among his sitters being Lady Stormonth Darling and Lord Balfour of Burleigh. His portrait The Artist's Mother was purchased by the Chantrey Bequest in 1930 and other examples of his work can be found in the public art galleries of Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and at Culzean Castle.