Tour Scotland photograph of a painting by William Hackstouns, who was born in 1855 to William Haxton at Balbreakie, Kennoway, Fife, Scotland. He was articled to Horatio Kelson Bromhead in Glasgow where he became acquainted with his fellow pupils George Jack and Thomas Hamilton Crawford. It is unclear whether Hackstoun found paid employment as an architect in London, England, to which he moved at the end of his articles, but he quickly became attached to the James Marjoribanks MacLaren, William Flockhart and George Washington Browne circle. He also made contact with John Ruskin who was attracted to his watercolours and arranged for him to stay near his house at Coniston, commissioning drawings of the French cathedral towns: and it was Ruskin who persuaded him to change the spelling of his name to Hackstoun. Hackstoun was a fine bass singer and studied for a time at the Royal College of Music in London and then with Campbell in Italy with the intention of following an operatic career. Ruskin persuaded him to return to watercolours. After a number of years in London during which he was financially supported by the art critic Dugald Sutherland MacColl, he settled for some years in St Andrews painting Fife landscapes, villages and seascapes. He was living at 148 Hill Street, Glasgow in 1916 and was in London when he died on 8 June 1921.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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