Margaret Gillies

Margaret Gillies ( 1803 -1887 ) – was a Scottish painter of miniatures and water-colours.

She was born in London where her Scottish merchant father had settled. Her mother died when she was eight and she and her sister Mary were sent to live with her uncle Lord Gillies, a Scottish judge in Edinburgh where they were educated and introduced into the best society.

She met many famous men including Sir Walter Scott, Lord Jeffrey and Lord Erskine, but decided she had to earn her own living and returned to her father’s house in London deciding to be a professional artist. She was taught miniature painting by Frederick Cruickshank and rapidly gained a reputation for that type of art through painting such notable people as the poet Wordsworth, Charles Dickens and Mrs. Marsh the novelist.

Her work was good enough to exhibit at the Royal Academy and she went on to study for a while in Paris. On her return to London she occasionally exhibited portraits in oil before deciding to dedicate herself to watercolour painting. She tended to choose sentimental, domestic or romantic subjects.

In 1852 she was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours and was a prolific contributor to its exhibitions. She was a keen supporter of women artists giving encouragement to Anna Mary Howitt and taking Marian Emma Chase as a pupil.

She lived for many years in Church Row Hampstead and died in 1887 at Crockham Hill in Kent from pleurisy.