BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

James Forbes MacKintosh Gow

dates

Vancouver Studio Club and School of Art
B.C. Society of Fine Arts (Charter Member 1909, Member 1909-1920)
B.C. Society of Fine Arts/B.C. Society of Artists: Exhibitor's Timeline


J. Mackintosh Gow was from Edinburgh, Scotland, and painted for several years at Knocke-Sur-Mer, Belgium, in the 1890s. He exhibited his work in the Royal Academy, London (1890 - 1898), the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, and the Aberdeen Artists' Society.

The DICTIONARY OF BRITISH ARTISTS 1880 - 1940 notes his exhibitions from 1881 to 1898, including the exhibition of 44 artworks with the Royal Society of Artists during that time.

He came to Canada around 1907, and by 1909 was exhibiting his artwork in the B.C. Society of Fine Arts' debut First Annual Exhibition at the Dominion Hall in Vancouver. Later that year he showed more paintings in the Exhibition of Pictures held by the Vancouver Studio Club and School of Art, where he was an instructor in oil and watercolour painting. The club was at 17 Haddock Block. Gow was living at the Regent Hotel in 1910.

Gow is listed in the 1912 City Directory as a clerk, employed by J. Collcutt and Company. In 1914 he is listed as accountant for the firm, and was living at 635 Granville Street. Collcutt was a wholesale importer of wines and spirits, and agents for Teacher's Scotch Whiskies.

Gow returned to the United Kingdom after World War One broke out, according to a 1918 article in the locally-published The Gold Stripe, Volume One, and apparently did not return to Vancouver.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1909 April 20 - 28 BCSFA    First Annual Exhibition On the British Columbia Coast
A Windmill, Moonlight
Texada Island
Sunset in Holland; A Shepherd
Crossing The Dunes
On the Almond, Scotland
Milking Time, Belgium
Cattle on the Dunes, Belgium
1909 June 19 - July 17 Studio Club   Exhibition of Pictures Ploughing
Gypsy Caravan, Epsom Downs
Brockton Point
Looking West, Kitsilano
A Grey Day, Kitsilano
Sunset, Holland
Autumn
Study of Rocks
Moonlight
The Swing - Unfinished Study
A Study of Color
Study of Boats, Belgium
1909 Oct. 27 - Nov. 6 Studio Club    Autumn Exhibition Burnaby Lake
The Edge of the Lake
On Burrard Inlet
1909 November BCSFA   Second Exhibition A Summer Morning
The Lake, Burnaby
A Shower
Looking Across Burnaby Lake
Sunset, Holland
On the Dunes, Belgium
1910 May BCSFA   Third Exhibition On an English Common
A Sultry Day
A Breezy Day
Moonlight on the Lake
Sketch of Hindoo
1911 November BCSFA   Fall Exhibition (3 charming local scenes)
1912 Nov. 25 - 30 BCSFA   Annual Exhibition The Edge of the Wood
On the Dunes, Belgium
Spring Day, Burnaby Lake
1915 April BCSFA   Works by Members Autumn, Burnaby Valley
Deer Lake
The Edge of the Clearing
Springtime
A Woodland Glade
1950 April 25 - May 14 BCSA   40th Annual Exhibition Landscape

References

THE FINE ARTS IN VANCOUVER, 1886 - 1930 (refer to THOM69)

THE DICTIONARY OF BRITISH ARTISTS 1880 - 1940 (refer to DBA76)

AN EXHIBITION OF OUR COLLECTION OF EARLY WESTERN CANADIAN WATERCOLORS (refer to UL78)

ARTISTS IN CANADA 1982 - UNION LIST OF ARTISTS' FILES (refer to AIC82)

CITY & PROVINCIAL DIRECTORIES 1908 (refer to DIR)

Clippings

"Vancouverites of the future will be glad that ... J. Mackintosh Gow ... and other Vancouver artists find imagination in local scenes."
      From "Vancouver Studio Club Spring Exhibition"
      B.C. Saturday Sunset, July 3 1909

"Mr. H. Abbott, the president, Mrs. A.M. Creery, Mrs. A. Lothian Russell, Mr. Mackintosh Gow, the director, and all concerned, are to be congratulated on again getting together an interesting and excellent collection. Each exhibition seems to mark improvement and progress."
      From "The Studio Club Autumn Exhibition" by Felix Penne
      B.C. Saturday Sunset, October 30 1909

"Mr. J.F. Mackintosh Gow has caught a few of these views very happily. "Burnaby Lake," "The Edge of the Lake," and "On Burrard Inlet" are instances."
      From "The Studio Club Autumn Exhibition" by Felix Penne
      B.C. Saturday Sunset, October 30 1909

"J. F Mackintosh Gow has many good pictures . . ."
      From "Vancouver Studio Club" by Felix Penne
      B.C. Saturday Sunset, November 6 1909

"Educated in Scotland, J. MacIntosh Gow is an able and successful painter, with a keen eye for color, and for the poetic aspects of nature. Though he works chiefly in water color, he is successful also in oil, in both devoting himself chiefly to landscape. His works always take a high place in the B.C.S.F.A. exhibitions."
      From "Art in British Columbia" by Bernard McEvoy
      Opportunities Magazine, 1910

"This year's exhibitors were ... J.F. Mackintosh Gow ... "
      From "Fine Arts Society Makes Fine Exhibit"
      Vancouver Daily World, November 23 1911

"Mr. Mackintosh Gow merits a good share of praise. Mr. Gow, an exhibitor on many occasions in the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy, showed three charming local scenes executed in his broad and deliberate style, which is ever a delight to those acquainted with the difficulties of the water-color medium."
      From "Our Germ Of Art" by Eugene de Lopatecki
      British Columbia magazine, December 1911

"Though but a small organization, numerically considered, the B.C. Society of Fine Arts has had the honor of contributing its quota of members to engage in the determined and now successful fight for freedom and civilization. It may be said that all those belonging to this artistic fraternity have helped in various ways, but those marked out for special recognition are:
     G. MACKINTOSH GOW - A landscape artist of much ability. His Scottish blood was quickly aroused by the demand for men, and he soon left for Britain where he has been engaged in war work ever since."
     From "Honor Roll - B.C. Society of Fine Arts"
     The Gold Stripe, Volume One, Christmas 1918

Editor's note: Additional information provided by Uno Langmann Ltd., Vancouver B.C.

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