Background

Archer was born in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, on June 10, 1822. He was the son of Andrew Archer, a dentist, and Ann Cunningham. He had three siblings. One of his sisters was Georgina Archer, who became the founder of an early college for women in Germany.

Education

James Archer attended the Royal High School and also completed his studies at the Trustee's Academy (now Edinburgh College of Art), which had been founded in Edinburgh in 1760 as the earliest publicly funded art school in Britain. He studied there under the guidance of Sir William Allan and Thomas Duncan, both were distinguished Scottish painters. In 1840 he enrolled in the Royal Scottish Academy and had his first exhibition there in 1842 with the painting titled "The Child St John in the Wilderness".

Career

By the late 1840s, Archer was specializing in themes from medieval history and literature. Eventually, he extended his repertoire and included Arthurian subjects.

James Archer worked in different techniques and used various instruments, oil, pencil or chalk. Initially, he specialized in portraiture. Archer's best-known works depicted children and people in costume as its subjects. In 1849 he presented his first historical picture titled The Last Supper at the Royal Scottish Academy. Later his artworks were mostly connected with the scenes taken from literature or legends that were popular at that time, including Shakespeare and King Arthur. Around 1859 James Archer started his series of Arthurian subjects, including such paintings as La Morte d'Arthur, Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. In 1864, Archer moved to London, where he renewed his original interest in portraiture.

Archer travelled to the United States in 1884, where he painted Andrew Carnegie's portrait. He went to India in 1886 for a three year period. There he mostly depicted landscapes and people in costume.

Achievements

• James Archer was renowned for his artworks, especially portraits and landscapes. He was the first Victorian painter to do children's portraits in period costume.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Mary Carrie

  • Samuel Cartwright, FRCS, LDS

  • Thomas Taylor, JP, of Wigan

  • Classical Subject

  • The Introduction

  • Rosalind and Celia

  • My Great Grandmother

  • Longing

  • Merlin and Lancelot

  • Sir Daniel Macnee, PRSA

  • Summertime, Gloucestershire

  • George Anderson Lawson, Sculptor

  • John MacWhirter, Landscape Painter

  • Misses Agnes and Margaret Perigal

  • Sir George Otto Trevelyan, 2nd Bt, Aged 32

  • Thomas Carlyle

  • John Maclauchlan, Chief Librarian of Dundee Free Library

  • Caroline Philips, Lady Trevelyan with Her Son Charles, Later Sir Charles Philips Trevelian, 3rd Bt

  • Sir David Murray, Artist

  • Henry Irving, as Charles I (from 'Charles I' by Percy Bysshe Shelley)

  • Alexander Smith, Poet and Writer

  • Sir William Quiller Orchardson, Artist

  • John William Ramsay, 13th Earl of Dalhousie

  • The Parting of Robert Burns and Highland Mary

  • Thomas de Quincey

  • Thomas Alexander Graham, Artist

  • Emelye

  • Doctor Joseph Joachim, Violinist, Conductor, Composer and Teacher

  • Jeannette Emmet

  • La Mort d'Arthur

  • James Archer, Artist, Self Portrait

  • A Portrait of Miss Rose Fenwick as a Child

  • James Young Simpson

  • John Francis Ure

  • Sir Henry Irving, as Mathias in 'The Bells'

  • John Pettie, Artist

  • Queen Guinevere

  • How Sir Launcelot Carried Queen Guinivere to Her Tomb

  • George William Fox, 9th Lord Kinnaird, KT

  • Professor John Stuart Blackie, HRSA

  • William Ewart Lockhart, Artist

Membership

In 1850 he became an associate at the Royal Scottish Academy, and in 1858 its Academician.

• Royal Scottish Academy , United Kingdom

  1850

Connections

Father:

Andrew Archer

Mother:

Ann Cunningham

Sister:

Georgina Archer