Howie, James G. (McKechnie Section 2)

The son of James Howie (q.v.), James G. Howie was not only an early exponent of photography in Edinburgh, but a painter of miniatures and of a few silhouettes. His relationship to James Howie is evident from the list of addresses used by the Howie family provided for me by the Central Library in Edinburgh. The first of the following addresses, taken from directories, is also the last of those listed for James Howie; clearly father and son worked together for a period:

1844-47 45 Princes Street

1847-48 39 South Bridge

1848-51 49 Princes Street

1851-64 71 Princes Street

1864-68 60 Princes Street

1868-69 60 and 63 Princes Street

In each of the entries James G. Howie is listed as ‘Miniature Painter and Photographic Artist’. It is probable that he was working earlier than 1844, since the illustrated example which I attribute to him bears the address 68 Princes Street, where his father worked 1841-42. Not only is this silhouette signed ‘By J. G. Howie’; its quality also suggests that it was not in fact painted by the eider artist. This silhouette (a portrait of a Miss Cunningham) has had an interesting history. Now in my collection, it was previously owned by an American collector, Maud Wilmot, who acquired it from Mrs H. L. Lonsdale, of Whiteleigh, Old Hebron Road, Colchester, Connecticut. Mrs Lonsdale's collection was exhibited in 1944 at the Wadsworth Athenaeum and the Morgan Memorial, Hartford, Connecticut, and there are references to Howie's silhouette in Antiques (April 1944). After many years in the United States, it has finally returned to England.

In style and technique, this silhouette is greatly inferior to the work of the artist's father. It is painted roughly in gum arabic against a grey base colour. Detail is achieved with a few coarse strokes in thick gum, and there is no shading. The bust-line is long and curved, with emphatic points both at the back and at the front.

The example is signed, beneath the bust-line, ‘By J. G. Howie, 68, Princes Street’.

Ill. 852