Stanley Cursiter

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Stanley Cursiter
Born29 April 1887
Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland
Died22 April 1976 (aged 88)
Stromness, Orkney, Scotland
NationalityScottish
EducationEdinburgh College of Art
Known forPainting, Drawing, author
MovementFuturism
SpousePhyllis Hourston
RelativesBina Cursiter (aunt)
National Gallery of Scotland
.

Stanley Cursiter

HM Limner and Painter in Scotland (1948–1976).[1]

Biography

He was born on 29 April 1887 at 15 East Road in Kirkwall, Orkney, the son of John Scott Cursiter and Mary Joan Thomson.[2][3]

He was educated at Kirkwall Grammar School before moving to Edinburgh, where he studied at Edinburgh College of Art. His early paintings were influenced by cubism, futurism[4] and vorticism. From an early age, he clearly had access to great wealth as his accommodation from 1910 is listed as 28 Queen Street, one of the most prestigious addresses in Edinburgh, and not affordable to the average art student.[5]

A banner he designed for the

Margaret Baikie, whose portrait he painted in 1946.[7]

During

Second World War he initially worked at the Ordnance Survey Department in Southampton (1939–40) and then moved to the same organisation in Edinburgh (1940–1945). He received a military CBE in 1948.[2]

After the First World War he adopted a more realist style.

Cursiter became an Associate of the

National Galleries of Scotland in 1930, a post he held until 1948.[11] That same year, he was granted the Freedom of Kirkwall and was appointed as the King's (later to be Queen's) Painter and Limner for Scotland, a position he held until his death.[12]

He painted

Palace of Holyroodhouse
, Edinburgh.

Aberdeen University awarded him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1959. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1938, a rare accolade for an artist. His proposers were James Pickering Kendall, Leonard Dobbin, James Watt, and Sir Ernest Wedderburn.[2]

Cursiter was influential in the campaign to create a Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.[4]

He died in Stromness on 22 April 1976.[3]

Memorial to Stanley Cursiter in Kirkwall Cathedral, Orkney
Landscape in the Orkneys, 1954.

Family

He married Phylliss Hourston on 14 October 1916.[3]

His older sister Jessie Cursiter (1881–1916) is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.[13]

Selected works

  • Rain on Princes Street, 1913
  • The Regatta, 1913
  • Villefranche,circa 1920
  • The Fair Isle Jumper, 1923
  • Geo at Yesnaby and Brough of Bigging, 1929
  • Window – Burnstane House, circa 1935
  • The Old Store, Stromness, 1950
  • The Honours of Scotland, 1954
  • Landscape in the Orkney Islands, 1954

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5
    . Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  2. ^
    ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help
    )
  3. ^ a b c "Stanley Cursiter (1887-1976)". National Records of Scotland. Scottish Government. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2020.
  4. ^ a b Mansfield, Susan (5 March 2018). "How Edinburgh artists of the 1930s shook up the establishment". The National. Herald and Times Group. Newsquest Media Group. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  5. ^ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory, 1910–11
  6. ISBN 978-1-873644-48-5
    .
  7. ^ "Margaret Baikie of Tankerness". en.wahooart.com. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  8. ^ "History of the 4th Field Survey Battalion Royal Engineers" (PDF). Retrieved 18 January 2016.
  9. ^ "Stanley Cursiter's contribution" (PDF). Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  10. ISBN 978-1780271903
  11. ^ "Cursiter painting sells for £22,500 at London auction". The Orcadian. Orkney Media Group Ltd. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  12. ^ "Cursiter paintings snapped up at Edinburgh auction". The Orcadian. Orkney Media Group Ltd. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  13. ^ Cursiter grave Dean Cemetery

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stanley_Cursiter&oldid=1205623391"