Artist E. A. Hornel
Artists on our Painting Holidays in Scotland enjoy the rare opportunity to paint at Broughton House, home of artist E. A. Hornel.
Who was this influencial, talented and wealthy Scottish artist?
Edward Atkinson Hornel was born in Australia in 1864. He was the son of Scottish emmigrants. The Hornel family eventually returned to Kirkcudbright, in SW Scotland, where Edward Hornel grew up and settled. He trained at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh and worked for a time in Antwerp, Belgium.
Hornel became a well-known and highly-respected artist in Scotland from the 1880s until his death in 1933. The artist was an early and prominent member of the influential group of painters known as the Glasgow Boys
The portrait of E. A. Hornel on the left was painted by fellow Scottish artist Bessie MacNicol. The Japanese tapestry in the background of this portrait is still to be seen in Hornel’s home in Kirkcudbright.
E. A. Hornel worked in close association with fellow artist George Henry. In fact at one time Hornel shared a studio with Henry and they collaborated on several works. In 1893 and 1894 the two artists travelled to Japan.
The Artists’ Town
Today, E. A. Hornel is best remembered for his Japanese paintings and by the work of the later part of his painting career when he produced dozens of pictures of young girls. His style developed into a rich mosaic of colour and he made full use of the beautiful locations along the Galloway coast near his home in Kirkcudbright, known as Scotland’s Artists’ Town since the days of the Glasgow Boys. Hornel often depicted his subjects in an idyllic, flower-filled landscape, beside a pool of water or the sea. One particular favourite location was Brighouse Bay – a local Galloway beauty spot.
'Reverie' by E. A. Hornel. The artist often painted in local beauty spots along the coast near his home in Kirkcudbright. The scene for this painting is Brighouse Bay
Hornel’s house in High Street, Kirkcudbright is now owned by The National Trust for Scotland and has undergone a major restoration. The house and gardens – the design of which was influenced by Hornel’s trip to Japan – are now open to the public.
E.A. Hornel found an international patron in James B. Mabon, a wealthy New York stock broker. Mabon bought Reverie – pictured above – in 1910, five years after Hornel painted it. Hornel’s painting remained in the Mabon family until 2006.
When you come on a Painting Holiday in Scotland, you will have the unique opportunity to set up your easel and paint in Hornel’s own studio in Broughton House, Kirkcudbright (left) and also in the beautiful gardens he designed.
