Archibald Russell Watson Allan died on 24th May 1959. He was 81. A native of Glasgow, he made his home in Stirling and it was there that one of his largest canvases was presented by a donor to the Smith Institute. This is a painting of a team of three horses and is titled “The Rebel”.
Allan received his early art education under John Spiers, a Glasgow portrait painter. He studied at the Athenaeum School of Art and later at the Glasgow School of Art where he took a diploma. There was a time when he was engaged in teaching there under Fra H. Newbery. “Archie” Allan, as he was known to his friends, found that the Outdoor life of the landscape painter appealed to him most and the West Highlands were an unfailing source of inspiration to him.
His love of gardening provided him with motives for his use of pastel, a medium in which he excelled. His studies of animals were a feature of his work and he is remembered latterly by his heroic canvases of horses ploughing or massed against a background offields and sky. Mr. Allan was elected A.R.S.A. in 1931 and R.S.A. in 1937. Apart from his particular fondness for gardening, he made a study of Scottish Gaelic.
RSA Obituary, transcribed from the 1959 RSA Annual Report
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