James Archer
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(1823 – 3 Sep 1904) RSA, was a Scottish painter of portraits, genre
works, landscapes and historical scenes
Archer was born in Edinburgh, the son of Andrew Archer, a dentist,
and Ann Cunningham, and educated at the Royal High School. He
studied at the Trustee's Academy in Edinburgh under Sir William
Allan and Thomas Duncan (painter). In 1840 he was accepted as a
student at the Royal Scottish Academy and first exhibited there in
1842, with the biblical painting, "The Child St John in the
Wilderness". He became an associate of the academy in 1850, and in
1858 an Academician (RSA)
Archer worked in oils, pencil and
chalk, and at the beginning of his career specialised in
portraiture, his best-known work includes children and people in
costume as its subjects - in fact, he was the first Victorian
painter to do children's portraits in period costume. In 1849 he
exhibited his first historical picture 'The Last Supper' at the
Royal Scottish Academy. His work after that mostly consisted of
scenes taken from literature or legends that were popular at the
time, such as Shakespeare and King Arthur.[4] In about 1859 he began
to paint a series of Arthurian subjects, including 'La Morte
d'Arthur' and 'Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere'. In 1864, he moved
to London.
In the 1880s, Archer travelled to
the USA, where he painted Andrew Carnegie's portrait, and to India,
where he painted landscapes and people in cotume.
Archer died in 1904 in Haslemere in
Surrey, survived by his son and three daughters from his marriage to
Jane Clerk.
