Old Photograph Old Kilpatrick Scotland

Old photograph cottages, houses and people in Old Kilpatrick, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. This Scottish village is on the north bank of the River Clyde immediately to the north of the Forth and Clyde Canal, three miles from Clydebank on the road to Dumbarton. George Harcourt was born in Old Kilpatrick in 1868, Harcourt's family moved to nearby Dumbarton while he was still a toddler. In the 1871 Harcourt's family were living, with two lodgers, in a modest property in the HIgh Street, Dumbarton and Henry Harcourt, George's father worked as a labourer. Harcourt received his initial art training at the Dumbarton School of Art, a satellite of the Glasgow School of Art which operated in Dumbarton at the end of the 19th century. Aged 20 he won the Denny Scholarship which funded further studies abroad. He studied at the Herkomer School of Art in Bushey, England, from 1889 and later went on to become the head of school. He rose to become the President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1945 following a spell as vice president and was also the Director of the Royal Academy. Over the years, Harcourt's style of painting changed from a Pre-Raphaelite influenced naturalism to an almost photorealistic portraiture. This perfection not only gave him a reputation among colleagues, but also secured him a good income as a portraitist of the British upper class. Harcourt died on 30 September 1947




All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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