Timeline

Anne Redpath was one of Scotland’s leading woman painters of the mid 20th century. She studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1913 under Robert Burns, Henry Lintott and D. M. Sutherland, qualifying as an art teacher in 1917. In 1919, a traveling scholarship allowed her to travel to the Continent, visiting Belgium, France and Italy. She married James Michie, an architect in the following year. They first lived in Pas-de-Calais where their first two sons were born. In 1924 they moved to the south of France and in 1928 they had a third son, now the artist David Michie. In 1934 they returned to Hawick in Scotland and Anne Redpath started exhibiting in Edinburgh. She was the president of the Scottish Society of Women Artists from 1944 to 1947 and became the first woman artist to be elected an Associate to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1947 to become an Academician in 1952. In 1955 she received an OBE for her work at the Edinburgh College of Art. Her first solo exhibition took place at the Scottish Gallery in 1947, followed by major annual exhibitions at the Royal Scottish Academy; the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street; Royal Glasgow Institute; the Scottish Society of Women Artists; the Lefevre Gallery in London and the Royal Academy.

At that time she was painting mainly landscapes and domestic still life in white and grey. After a visit in 1948 to Paris and later to Spain she adopted a brighter and more expressive palette, incorporating a sense of drama in her work. In 1949 she moved to Edinburgh and in 1955 she became seriously ill. She recovered but suffered a second serious illness in 1959, loosing the use of her right hand. Being forced to paint with her left hand, her output was limited. Trips to the Canary Island, Portugal and Holland gave her a different outlook on the world, capturing unsuspected beauty and her paintings became more vibrant, bringing the oils almost to life.

Today, her work is represented in major galleries in Britain and abroad, including the Tate Gallery. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh gave a retrospective exhibition in 1996 – 97.