Samuel Bough

Washerwoman and boat at the water's edge

1855

Samuel Bough (1822–1878) was an English-born landscape painter who spent much of his career working in Scotland. He was born the third of five children in Abbey Street, Carlisle in the north of England, the son of James Bough (1794-1845), shoemaker, and Lucy Walker, cook. He was brought up in relative poverty, but with strong encouragement in the arts. He was self-taught but mixed with local artists such as Richard Harrington and George Sheffield, and was heavily influenced by Turner's work. After an unsuccessful attempt to live as an artist in Carlisle, he obtained employment and as a theater scenery painter in Manchester in 1845, later also working in Glasgow in the same role. Encouraged by Daniel Macnee to take up landscape painting, he moved to Hamilton from 1851 to 1851 and worked there with Alexander Fraser. In Cadzow Forest (1857, Bourne Fine Art), influenced by Horatio McCulloch, is a "magnificent" portrait of two ancient trees. In 1854 he moved to Port Glasgow to work on his technique of painting ships and ports. He also began to supplement his income by illustrating books, before moving to Edinburgh in 1855. When he arrived in Edinburgh, he lived in a terraced house at 5 Malta Terrace in the Stockbridge area of ​​the city. Following Turner's example, he became a skilled seaport painter. He later fell out with McCulloch (their dogs apparently took sides in the dispute). He was admired by Robert Louis Stevenson and painted a view of his home in Swanston and the building of Dubh Artach Lighthouse. The latter's engineering work was undertaken by brothers Thomas and David Stevenson, respectively father and uncle of Robert Louis.