Samuel Bough
1822–1878 · English-born landscape painter active mainly in Scotland
Samuel Bough (Carlisle, 1822 – Edinburgh, 1878) was an English-born landscape painter who spent most of his career in Scotland. He is remembered for working largely self-taught while absorbing the example of J. M. W. Turner, and for his seaport and harbour scenes.
The son of a shoemaker and a cook, he grew up in modest circumstances in Carlisle, where he mixed with local painters. An attempt to earn a living as an artist there did not succeed, so in 1845 he took work painting theatre scenery in Manchester, and later did the same in Glasgow.
Encouraged by Daniel Macnee to turn to landscape, he lived in Hamilton from 1851 to 1854, working alongside Alexander Fraser, then moved to Port Glasgow to refine his painting of ships and harbours. He settled in Edinburgh in 1855 and became a skilful painter of seaports, following Turner's lead. His works include a view of St. Andrews, The Dreadnought from Greenwich Stairs: Sun Sinking into Vapour, and Cadzow Forest of 1857.
He also supplemented his income by illustrating books. He was admired by Robert Louis Stevenson, who painted a view of his house at Swanston and wrote a warm obituary after Bough's death from prostate cancer in 1878.
Works (1)
Samuel Bough painted this large canvas in 1860, showing a review of volunteers, one of the part-time armed units formed across Britain in those years. The wide format gathers the troops and spectators into a single public scene. It is held by the National Galleries of Scotland.
Where to see the work
- National Galleries Scotland City of Edinburgh · 1