Career
Born David Abercrombie Donaldson at Chryston, Lanarkshire in 1916. He was awarded the Glasgow School of Art Haldane Travelling Scholarship in 1937 and went abroad for the first time in his life to visit Paris and Florence. When Donaldson returned to Glasgow he undertook another year of study at Glasgow School of Art, the equivalent of a post-graduate year awarded to outstanding students on completion of their diploma.
The Empire Exhibition of 1938 was held in Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park.
Scotland’s schools of art were employed to decorate pavilions and Donaldson painted a large scale mural which did not survive the demolition of the exhibition. With the declaration of war in 1939 Donaldson was graded unfit for military service.
He continued to teach his night-school classes but as staff from the art school went off to serve in the forces he graduated to teaching first and second year students. One of his more notable students at Glasgow School of Art was the Glasgow artist Stewart Bowman Johnson.
Donaldson was commissioned to paint the Queen in 1966.
He was appointed Painter and Limner to Her Majesty the Queen in Scotland in 1977. Amongst his other notable subjects were Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and many prominent figures in Scottish public life. David Donaldson died shortly after celebrating his 80th birthday in 1996.