James Cassie

James Cassie was born in 1819 in Inverurie, some twenty miles north-west of Aberdeen, the eldest son of a tea and spirit merchant. In the late 1820's the family moved to Aberdeen where, having decided to pursue an artistic career, Cassie's was taken on as a pupil by James Giles (1807-1870). Giles had the unusual distinction, for a painter in Aberdeen in the mid 1830's, of having studied in Italy and was much sought after as a drawing master, his best known pupil being Queen Victoria. Another influence on the young Cassie was William Dyce whose meticulous observation of Nature and preference for bright, clear colours, had a marked effect on the younger man's art. Clearly Cassie developed quickly as by 1838, whilst still a pupil of Giles, he had established his own drawing class in an attic room in the city.For the next fifteen years or more Cassie remained in Aberdeen, earning a moderately successful living from portrait painting, not just of farmers, doctors, lawyers and clergymen but also of cattle and hounds.

James Cassie's work was always outside the mainstream of academic Scottish landscape painting and this may explain why he was so belatedly accepted into the august fold of the Royal Scottish Academy. He was however enormously popular as a man. This short, stout, lame bachelor of far from lovely appearance was reknowned for his wit and his skill as a raconteur; the most famous anecdote about him relates how, at an artists' dinner, where Edinburgh and Glasgow, as is their wont, each claimed to be the cradle of Scottish Art Cassie, in great indignation, replied, De'il a bit! There's Jameson, Dyce and Phillip-tak' awa' Aberdeen and twelve mile roon an' far are ye?