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anne redpath
(1895–1965) OBE, RSA, ARA, RWA
Anne Redpath was born on the 29th of March, 1895 in Galashiels in the heart of the Scottish Borders. Her father Thomas
Redpath was a celebrated tweed designer who was recognised both as an innovator and exceptional colourist. It was not just
an eye for colour that Anne inherited from her father, but a focus and professionalism to her craft which was to drive her
throughout her life. One of four children, Anne attended Hawick High School where her artistic talent was spotted by the
art teacher John Gray (later to be president of the Royal Society for Painters in Watercolour).
Anne arrived at Edinburgh College of Art in 1913, although she had to simultaneously attend a teacher training
course at Moray House to keep her father happy. Graduating with a diploma in 1918, she was also awarded a year’s postgraduate
study followed by a travelling scholarship the following year. She visited Brussels, Bruges, Paris, Florence and most
importantly, Sienna. Her encounter with the Siennese Primitives was to impress her greatly. It was their simplification of
form partnered with a powerful vision that had most resonance with her, and their influence is seen in her landscapes of the
1920s and 30s as well as work from the end of her life. On her return from her travels Anne was engaged to James Michie,
a young architect also from the Borders. They married in 1920 and almost immediately moved to St Omer in Northern
France, where James was working for the War Graves Commission. It was in St Omer where the first two Michie sons were
born. She did have a small exhibition in St Omer in 1921 (and again in St. Raphael in 1928) but at this stage Anne’s painting
took a back seat, her priorities were with her young family. They had moved again at this point to St. Jean, Cap Ferrat near
Nice. Although painting was not her first priority at this time, her drive as an artist was by no means diminished. In her own
words:
‘Young women often come up to me and say: “I am going to be like you and give up everything for painting”, but
that’s not how I see it at all. I could never have sacrificed my family to painting, and I don’t think anyone else should either…
I put everything I had into house and furniture and dresses and good food and people. All that’s the same sort of thing as
painting really, and the experience went back into art when I began painting again.’
When she returned to Hawick in 1934 the landscape of her childhood offered much inspiration; winter light,
bare trees and swollen rivers of The Borders. In her studio she painted a few memorable figure compositions including
touching family portraits, three of which feature in this exhibition. Increasingly, tabletop still lifes became a favourite subject
and were to make her reputation, (and as James had moved to London in search of work) her livelihood. Her palette during
the 1930s was at first muted and there is both a delicacy in application and mastery of pale tones and areas of jewel-like
colour. Her landscapes, painted in the studio are a distillation of experience; her choice of what to include and exclude in
her design part of her character as a picture maker.
In the 1950s and until her death in 1965 she travelled extensively (often with her sons in tow!), which hugely
enriched the scope of her subject matter. She always brought back exotic objects for the studio and sketchbooks full of
material for her oils. Her first trip back to the continent was in 1949, and again in 1950. She travelled to Spain in the spring
of 1951 with her friend Bill Garrad. The harsh landscape and stark light of the Spanish countryside astounded her, and was
very different from the warm, gentleness of the South of France. It engendered a change which was to affect her practice
for the last years of her life;
‘If one painted nothing but still-life one would fall into the narrow range of one’s own natural selection. To go to
Spain and find dark grey skies and white villages; to Italy and find that the sky is more violet than blue; to Corsica and find
violets and scarlets on the hillsides; all this enlarges one’s range of colour and responsiveness.’
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