The Vanguard

The Vanguard

Dundee Art Galleries & Museum: 272-1987-236

Artist: Murray, Charles Oliver

Date: 1879

State: 1/1

Size: 16.5 x 25.7 cm

Medium: Etching and Mezzotint

Alternative Title(s) The Vanguard (from the painting by John MacWhirter)
Details Etching with mezzotint. Black ink on good quality lined paper.Inscription in graphite, from left; ‘C.O. Murray SC’. ‘MacWhirter’ signed in print.Underneath is the dedication: ‘To James G. Orchar with empathy, J. MacWhirter’.
Description John MacWhirter (1839-1911) was a pupil of Robert Scott Lauder and a friend of Orchar’s indeed there are a number of paintings of his in The Orchar Collection. Orchar owned the original painting on which this etching is based and it was shown at the 1880 Dundee Fine Art Exhibition.MacWhirter was a talented etcher in his own right and was elected a Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers on 7th May 1881. His membership ceased on 19th November 1889.The reason for the personal dedication likely refers to the death of Orchar’s brother Robert, a mechanical engineer, who died aged only 46 on 20th May 1881 from problems arising from cystitis and nephritis.

Murray exhibited a number of etchings at the 1882 Dundee Fine Art Exhibition; The Sportsman’s Friends: after J.S. Noble (No. 863 £4.4), Carlyle in his Garden: after Mrs Allingham (No. 914 £1 11/6), “When the Kye Comes Hames”: After Mark Fisher (No. 924 £2.2) and “Discretion the Better Part of Valour”: after Briton Riviere, R.A. (No.1865).

The painting would later provide the inspiration for the U.S. Postal Office’s 1898 stamp Western Castle in Storm.
Exhibited Dundee Exhibited at the Dundee Fine Art Exhibition, Albert Institute, 1881 (Fourth Gallery, No. 805) and marked as ‘Property of J.G. Orchar’. Dundee Fine Art Exhibition Catalogue 1881, The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum.

The etching had previously been exhibited at the Kirkcaldy Fine Art Exhibition of 1880 as ‘The Advance Guard, after MacWhirter, C.O. Murray’ and marked as ‘lent by J.G. Orchar’ (No. 708). The Illustrated Catalogue of the Ninth Annual Kirkcaldy Fine Art Exhibition of 1880. National Art Library, London.
References
  1. H. Beck, Victorian Engravings. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973
  2. Rodney K. Engen, Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and Their Works. Cambridge, Chadwyck-Heley, 1979
  3. Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904. Wakefield, S.R. Publishers, Ltd., Bath, Kingsmead Reprints, 1970

Detailed Shots


Detail of the Signature

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