MARY MORRIS (SCOTTISH fl. 1860 - 1938)
SCOTTISH COAST

oil on canvas, signed
framed

image size 51cm x 77cm, overall size 65cm x 90cm

Note: Glasgow based artist, Morris painted Scottish coastal scenes, working on Iona, Mull and at Machrihanish. Surprisingly, relatively little is known about Morris, however newspaper articles reveal snippets of her life that put her in the centre of Glasgow’s flourishing art scene between 1893 and 1938. A review in The Scotsman shows her exhibiting a seascape with the Glasgow Society of Lady Artist’s in 1917, whilst labels to the reverse of her known works show she was a regular contributor to exhibitions at the Paisley Art Institute and the prestigious Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. Her dates are usually shown as fl 1860 - 1938 but her work was exhibited at RGI between 1911 and 1946. Exhibition records show her address as 53 Glencairn Drive, Pollokshields. Of the fifty pictures she showed at the RGI, twenty-six were of, or from, Iona. She is known to have stayed at The Columba Hotel on Iona in 1919, 1920, 1921, 1924, 1926, 1928, 1930 & 1932 but these records are incomplete and she might well have visited more frequently and/or also stayed at other accommodation on the island. Mary Morris painted in oils and most likely en plein air. She invariably painted coastal views, often looking out to sea with very little land in the foreground. Her subject matter attests to her passion for the sea as well as her ability to travel to these locations, which was likely funded through her successful picture sales.