George Whitton Johnstone RSA 1849-1901

The Council regret having to record the death of G. W. Johnstone, R.S.A. Born at Glamis, Forfarshire, in 1851, he came to Edinburgh at the age of thirteen, and was employed for a number of years as a cabinetmaker, He early showed a decided taste for landscape painting, and in 1872 exhibited for the first time in the Annual Exhibition of the Academy two works, “On the Kerbit” and “Old Cottage near Brechin.”

In 1876 he became a student of the Board of Manufactures’ School of Design, where, in course of his study, he gained a bronze medal for drawing from the antique. He was admitted as a student to the Life School of the Academy in 1877, and thereafter his attention was wholly directed to landscape painting as a profession, from the year when he first exhibited, he was constantly and liberally represented in the Annual Exhibition of the Academy. Lowland scenery mainly supplied him with subjects. An indefatigable worker, he produced many works both in oil and in water-colour.

Among the most characteristic are :—* The Kye Comin’ Hame” and “Woodland Ford near Juniper Green,” 1875 ; “The Approach of Spring,” 1878; “ Quiet Waters,” 1880 ; “Tweed’s Clear River” and “A May Day,” 1882; “ Spring-time o’ the Year,” 1883; “A Lowland River” and “Yon Burnside,” 1884; “On the Esk, Canobie,” 1885; “ Borderland,” 1887; “The Music of Solitude,” 1889; “ Dunlappy Ford, Edzell,” 1890; “Glamis,” 1893 ; “Where the Burnie Rins into the Sea,” his Diploma work; “Strawberry Time,” 1899; “ When the Wind blaws cauld, when the Burn rins bauld,’ 1901.

Among his works in Water- colour are:—“On the Esk, Canobie,’ 1885; “ Dunottar,” In 1887: “St. Monance,’ 1889. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1883, and an Academician in 1895. His death took place on 22nd February at his residence in Edinburgh.

RSA Obituary by George Reid. The 1901 RSA Annual Report