William Mervyn Glass RSA 1885-1965

William Mervyn Glass was a native of Ellon and, although he was trained at Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen, he lived nearly all his life in Edinburgh, to which he first came in 1906 to further his art education by attending the Life Classes at the Academy's School.

He was awarded the Maclaine- Watters Bronze Medal and the Chalmers-Jervise Prize. After a further period of study in Paris and painting in Italy, he settled in Edinburgh in 1913. During the First World War, he served in Ireland and France with the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry.

Mr. Glass found his subjects chiefly in Iona and the Scottish High- lands, where the varied colouring, the precipitous shapes of the landscape and the snowy mountain peaks attracted him. He painted large canvases as well as smaller pictures, and “The Coolins, Skye" was purchased for the Art Gallery at Kelvingrove by Glasgow Corporation.

In 1934, he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy and in 1959 an Academician. He was also a Past- President of the Society of Scottish Artists and of the Scottish Arts Club. For some time Mr. Glass had been in poor health. He died in his eightieth year on 14th August, 1965, and is survived by his wife and daughter.

Transcribed from the 1965 RSA Annual Report