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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.’ 10
Like most of the edinburgh School painters she divided her output between oil and working on paper, valuing each the same. Latterly in her flowers, townscapes and church interiors her treatment of the canvas became more abstract as she abandoned traditional spatial composition. Her technique developed also, employing the palette knife as much as the brush and using rich and brilliant colour. redpath was an inspirational person and formed many enduring friendships. Her flat in London Street became an artistic salon, immortalised by robin Philipson’s affectionate group portrait now in The Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Since her death her reputation has been further enhanced with retrospectives including an exhibition at The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 1996. She was a woman devoted to her family as well as her art. This exhibition features early Borders landscapes, sparse and immediate, as well as later works: still lifes rich in colour and texture reminding us of the breadth of her artistic ability. There is youthful sense of enquiry throughout her work and a delight in her subject matter which is individual and always vivacious. Portrait of David as a baby pastel on paper, 29 cms diameter 11
Page 1: THE MICHIE FAMILY
Page 4: foreword It is not uncommon for som
Page 7 and 8: Borders Landscape, c.1944 watercolo
Page 9 and 10: Bristol Construction Site, 1955 pen
Page 11: Still Life with Chinese Figures oil
Page 15 and 16: Menton gouache, 53 x 38 cms 13
Page 17 and 18: Borders River gouache, 35.5 x 50.5
Page 19 and 20: Church from the Window pen & waterc
Page 21 and 22: Flowers in a Teapot ink & watercolo
Page 23 and 24: White Geraniums, 1962 oil on board,
Page 25 and 26: The Angel Gabriel from the Chapel o
Page 27 and 28: Ammonite, c.1962 mixed media on can
Page 29 and 30: Endeavour, 1989 bronze, edition 4/5
Page 31 and 32: Solo, c.2008 acrylic on board, 50 x
Page 33 and 34: Margins XXI, c.2002 acrylic on boar
Page 35 and 36: Fashion Drawing I pastel, 53 x 30 c
Page 37 and 38: Fashion Drawing XIII mixed media, 6
Page 39 and 40: At the Harbour, Granton, 1953 oil o
Page 41 and 42: Rosemount Building, Gardners Cresce
Page 43 and 44: Convolvulus Hawkmoth at a Flower, 1
Page 45 and 46: Damsel Fly on a Leaf, 1995 oil on c
Page 47 and 48: George Melly at the Festival Theatr
Page 49 and 50: Dancing in the Bar Room, 2011 oil o

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