Images(7)

A.G. Macdonell

Artist William McMillan (Aberdeen, Scotland, 1887 - 1977)

SitterSitter is A G Macdonell (Poona, India, 1895 - 1941)

Date1923

Mediumbronze on granite plinth

ClassificationsSculptures

DimensionsOverall: Height: 44 cm, Width: 21 cm, Depth: 20 cm
Plinth Size: Height: 15.5 cm, Width: 15 cm, Depth: 15.8 cm

AcquisitionPresented in 1948 by Major J F Macdonell.

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG004680

Keywords

Portrait

About MeThe sitter, Archibald Gordon Macdonell, (1895-1941), writer and journalist was the younger son of Alice Elizabeth, daughter of the Aberdonian classical scholar and patron of the arts, John Forbes White. In 1926 he married Mona Sabine Mann, daughter of the artist Harrington Mann.

A tall, athletic man with a close-cropped moustache, he was remembered as a complex individual, ‘delightful … but quarrelsome and choleric’ by Alec Waugh, who called him the "Purple Scot".

He is perhaps best known for "England their England" (1933), a collection of satirical essays on English social and sporting life, including an attack on fox-hunting and a description of a village cricket match. Winning instant acclaim, it also became required reading in schools at the time and remains popular today.