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Alexander was born in Edinburgh, son of the painter Robert Alexander (1840–1923) from whom he learned much. He visited Tangier with his father and Joseph Crawhall, nine years his senior, in the winter of 1887–88 which sparked a lifelong fascination for the desert and the Arab world. He did study in Edinburgh and Paris with his friend Robert Burns (1861–1941) but was drawn back to North Africa and was based in Egypt, living on a houseboat on the Nile from 1892–1896. James Caw writing in his book Scottish Painting Past and Present (TC and EC Jack, Edinburgh, 1908) notes ‘… that this young painter dwelt among the Arabs, living their simple life in the tents and sharing their daily lives.’ His depictions of camels and donkeys and the soft, varied, fawn coloured landscape with warm sunlight and purple shadow are observed as an intimate not a tourist. Caw ascribes a similar charm to Alexander’s home landscape. ‘Low-horizoned ploughed lands with birds on wing on the high airy sky; long ebb-tide sands glimmering in the deepening twilight; and bare uplands with nibbling sheep seen in the delicate harmony wrought by a grey spring day – these and such-like are the themes he loves. It is as a painter of birds and the natural world for which he is rightly celebrated. The Fine art Society mounted an exhibition for The Edinburgh Festival in 1985 called Camels, Cobwebs and Honeysuckles featuring Alexander and Crawhall and they stand out as two of the most brilliant draftsmen of their generation whose particular, quiet vision has often been drowned out – by noisier more self-conscious art. Caw was hugely tempted to include Crawhall in his history but as a strict nationalist the painter’s Northumbrian origin ruled him out. Alexander he praises for his delicacy of drawing, his colour: ‘fastidious and harmonious’ and his rare regard for decorative placing. His love of birds is clear in so many delicate, perfect representations of birds and he kept owls and peacocks at his home in Musselburgh. Alexander had the first of four one-man shows with The Scottish Gallery in 1901 and the following year was made an associate of The RSA. In 1904 he married into the Dott family and settled in Edinburgh. Sadly he had a stroke in 1917 and died aged only fifty-six. His memorial exhibition was held at The Gallery. 46
edwin alexander (1870–1926) A Syrian Camp Watercolour, 26 x 47 cms signed lower left 47
Page 1: the taste of JW Blyth
Page 5 and 6: Foreword Michael Portillo I knew my
Page 7 and 8: elevation plan to Wilby house, 1909
Page 9 and 10: Collecting Blyth kept a simple reco
Page 11 and 12: the hawcklymuir factory, Kirkcaldy
Page 13 and 14: and Explanatory Notes on the Art of
Page 15 and 16: Peploe in terms of colour: ‘altho
Page 17 and 18: Blyth’s conversion was certainly
Page 19: Trouville Harbour and Deauville (pa
Page 22 and 23: Most contemporary publications, exh
Page 24 and 25: a warning of what we have escaped i
Page 26 and 27: Vale “No plans were ever made for
Page 28 and 29: catalogue Eugène Boudin was born i
Page 30 and 31: “everything that is painted on th
Page 32 and 33: Wintour was born in Edinburgh and a
Page 34 and 35: Two years senior to his great frien
Page 36 and 37: Paintings by William McTaggart, R.S
Page 38 and 39: there are a number of pictures of R
Page 40 and 41: In July 1947 Blyth bought a picture
Page 42 and 43: “The remarkable place which he ho
Page 44 and 45: “To few men has a more beautiful
Page 46 and 47: Wingate’s first arran subject exh
Page 48 and 49: Wingate’s Farm seems close in spi
Page 52 and 53: edwin alexander (1870-1926) Moorlan
Page 54 and 55: edwin alexander (1870-1926) Doves a
Page 56 and 57: edwin alexander (1870-1926) Gullane
Page 58 and 59: edwin alexander (1870-1926) Storeho
Page 61 and 62: s.J. Peploe (1871-1935) The Lobster
Page 64 and 65: Peploe is strongly associated with
Page 66 and 67: Comrie is a village on the River ea
Page 68 and 69: s.J. Peploe (1871-1935) Paris Plage
Page 70 and 71: s.J. Peploe (1871-1935) Royan, 1910
Page 72 and 73: Peploe began to visit the south-wes
Page 74 and 75: fergusson held his first one-man-sh
Page 76 and 77: Blyth bought three hunters the othe
Page 78 and 79: Grant first visited Cassis in 1927
Page 80 and 81: Lily McDougall was born in Glasgow
Page 82: Walter Richard Sickert was born in
Page 85 and 86: Walter Richard sickert (1860-1942)
Page 87 and 88: ernest stephen lumsden (1883-1948)
Page 89 and 90: James McBey (1883-1959) Venice Gran

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