Collections

Bishop Elphinstone, Spring

Printer: Hynes, CharliePrintmaker: Addison, Donald Stuart · 1937-2025Papermaker: ArchesPublisher: Peacock PrintmakersPrinter: Watson, Arthur, PPRSA RSA · b. 1951

Bishop Elphinstone, Spring

Addison drew his inspiration from buildings and scenes in and around his adopted Aberdeen. The focus of this print is the elaborate bronze memorial…

Addison drew his inspiration from buildings and scenes in and around his adopted Aberdeen.

The focus of this print is the elaborate bronze memorial 'tomb' created in the early 20th Century to mark the 400th anniversary of William Elphinstone (1431-1514), Bishop of Aberdeen (1484-1514), founder of the University of Aberdeen (1496).

The plans were beset with difficulties and set-backs, not least the First World War and the monument, by the English Arts & Crafts maker Henry Wilson (1864-1934) was not completed until 1931.

On his death in Edinburgh, Bishop Elphinstone's body was taken to Aberdeen where he was buried in front of the Altar in King's College beneath an ornate canopied tomb. This was desecrated and destroyed during the Reformation.

The present Monument took elements of the original tomb into consideration and was originally sited, as planned, in the Chapel's Ante-Chamber. Wilson had not stuck to his brief and the finished memorial proved too large for the ante-chamber to function and so in 1946 the monument was moved to a paved area outside King's College Chapel where it remains.

The print is from the King's Suite

The prints were printed by Arthur Watson assisted by Charlie Hynes

The print carries the Peacock embossed stamp, itself designed by Addison

the paper is watermarked

© The Artist's Estate