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Received some initial training attending morning classes at Glasgow School of Art whilst working as an office clerk. Travelled to Italy and in 1872 came to Edinburgh studying for a time at the Trustees Academy and the RSA Life School under McTaggart and Cameron. He specialised in landscape working in Hamilton near Cadzow Forest then in the Lothians where he became acquainted with artists such as WD McKay and Robert McGregor. From 1881he settled for six years at Muthill in Perthshire. Later in his career he also made trips to Arran. His landscape paintings slowly evolved from an early intense emphasis on detail to a greater rendering of atmospheric effects and details of rural life, his landscapes often featuring figures . He exhibited at the RSA Annual Exhibitions from 1865 until 1923. He became an Associate of the RSA in 1879 and an Academician in 1886. In 1919 he became the ninth President of the RSA and held this office until his retirement due to ill health in 1923. He was knighted in 1919.