George Houston RSA 1869 -1947

Born at Dalry, Ayrshire, 1869, George Houston died in the same town on the 5th October, at the age of 78. He served his time as a lithographic artist in Glasgow and afterwards joined the staff of the Glasgow Citizen as an illustrator. 

Although widely travelled—he was in Japan in 1911—Houston’s work was almost exclusively Scottish in theme, with subjects princi- pally in Ayrshire and the Western Isles. His vision was direct: and simple and was interpreted with a technique baffling in its apparent ease.

His finest work has a unity—visual, technical and emotional -which ‘places it among the finest landscapes produced in Scotland. He exhibited in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Continent, and is represented in Glasgow, Liverpool, Preston, Oldham, Scottish Modern Arts, Canterbury Art Society, and Welling- ton, New Zealand.

He was elected Associate in 1910 and Academician in 1925, his Diploma work has for its subject an Ayrshire glen. Mr. Houston is survived by a widow and a family.

Transcribed from the 1947 RSA Annual Report