Portrait of Rachel Annand Taylor

Artist John Duncan (Dundee, Scotland, 1866 - 1945)

AssociatedAssociated with D.H. Lawrence (Eastwood, England, 1885 - 1930)

SitterSitter is Rachel Annand Taylor (Aberdeen, Scotland, 1876 - 1960)

Date1907

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

Dimensions61.5 x 36cm
Frame Size: 90.5 x 66 x 5cm

AcquisitionPresented in 2004 by Dr Louise Annand.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG014308

Keywords

About MeThe sitter, Rachel Annand, was born in Aberdeen in 1876. She married Alexander Cameron Taylor. In 1943 she was awarded an honorary LLD by Aberdeen University, her alma mater. She lived in Aberdeen, Dundee and London and died on 15 August 1960.
Annand was a noted poet, whose published works included Poems (1904); Rose and Vine (1908); The House of Fiammetta (1909); Aspects of the Italian Renaissance (1923); The End of Fiammetta (1923); Leonardo the Florentine (1927); Dunbar the Poet and his Period (1931) and Renaissance France (1949). She was a friend of D.H. Lawrence, who admired her work and wrote to her on the subject. Hugh MacDiarmid was less favourable however. He believed that the feminine aspects and consciously historical nature of her work "robbed The Scottish Renaissance of one whose true place should have been at its head".
It was perhaps precisely her interest in history and romance that so attracted Annand as a sitter to John Duncan. He was Scotland's most noted artist of the Celtic Revival in Scotland, many of his paintings being inspired by Celtic legend and mythology. His romantic, style is admirably suited to his subject as Rachel's hair style and costume reflect her own keen interest Scotland's Celtic past.

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The poetry of Aberdonian Rachel Annand Taylor (1878-1960) was widely admired, but Hugh MacDiarmid said its rather old-fashioned manner “robbed the Scottish Renaissance of one whose place should have been at its head”.