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  BRITISH
  ARTISTS

  JOHN PETTIE, R.A., H.R.S.A.



  [Illustration: Bonnie Prince Charlie (Cover Page)]



  IN THE SAME SERIES

    BIRKET FOSTER, R.W.S.
    KATE GREENAWAY
    GEORGE MORLAND

  A. AND C. BLACK .  4 SOHO SQUARE .  LONDON, W.


  AGENTS

    AMERICA          THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                     64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

    AUSTRALASIA      OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
                     205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE

    CANADA           THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
                     27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO

    INDIA            MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
                     MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
                     309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA



  [Illustration: Portrait of John Pettie]



  JOHN PETTIE
  R.A., H.R.S.A.

  SIXTEEN EXAMPLES IN COLOUR
  OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

  WITH
  AN INTRODUCTION
  BY
  MARTIN HARDIE, B.A., A.R.E.

  [Illustration]

  PUBLISHED BY A. & C. BLACK
  4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON
  MCMX




LIST OF PLATES


                                    OWNER OF ORIGINAL

  1. Portrait of John Pettie        _Tate Gallery_

  2. The Vigil                                "

  3. The Step                       _Kenneth M. Clark, Esq._

  4. A Drum-head Court-Martial      _Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield_

  5. Treason                                  "

  6. Rejected Addresses             _The Rt. Hon. Baron Faber_

  7. Ho! Ho! Old Noll!              _W. J. Chrystal, Esq_.

  8. A Sword-and-Dagger Fight       _Corporation Art Gallery, Glasgow_

  9. Two Strings to her Bow                   "

  [A]10. Bonnie Prince Charlie      _Charles Stewart, Esq._

  11. Disbanded                     _Fine Art Institution, Dundee_

  12. Portrait of Sir Charles
        Wyndham as David Garrick    _Sir Charles Wyndham_

  13. The Clash of Steel            _John Jordan, Esq._

  14. A Storm in a Teacup           _Colonel Harding_

  15. Grandmother's Memories        _Trustees of the late Alex. Rose, Esq._

  16. The Chieftain's Candlesticks  _By permission of the late Mrs. Morten_

        [A] _On the cover_




JOHN PETTIE, R.A.


Like many great painters, John Pettie was of humble origin. Born in
Edinburgh in 1839, he was the son of a tradesman who, having reached
some prosperity, purchased a business in the village of East Linton and
moved there with his family in 1852. The boy was born with art in his
blood, and Nature never intended him for the dull and respectable
vocation to which his father was anxious that he should succeed. More
than once, when despatched on an errand to storeroom or cellar, he was
discovered making drawings on the lid of a wooden box or the top of a
cask, totally oblivious of his journey and its object. A portrait of the
village carrier and his donkey, done when he was a boy of fifteen,
struck neighbouring critics as being almost "uncanny," and overcame even
his father's objections to art as a possible career.

Greatly daring, his mother carried off her son to Edinburgh, a bundle of
drawings beneath his arm, to visit Mr. James Drummond, one of the
leading members of the Royal Scottish Academy. "Much better make him
stick to business," was his verdict, after listening to the mother's
story. But his tone changed when he had seen the drawings. Not a word
was uttered while he turned them over; but then