Howie, James (McKechnie Section 2)

Recorded by Jackson (Dictionary), who describes him as principally a portrait and animal painter and mentions an address at 65 Princes Street, Edinburgh. The Central Public Library, Edinburgh, however, have given me a list of addresses in the city known to have been used by Howie (and his son James G. Howie, q.v.), and this list does not include an address at 65 Princes Street:

1823-24 8 North Bridge

1824-25 51 North Bridge

1825-27 8 North Bridge

1827-32 29 Princes Street

1832-41 64 Princes Street

1841-42 68 Princes Street

1842-63 45 Princes Street

Howie, then, worked for twenty years at 45 Princes Street. In these directory entries Howie is described as 'Portrait and Animal Painter' (the description given on a surviving trade label), and it seems that he only occasionally painted silhouettes. One example is the illustrated profile of Gilbert Burns (brother of the poet Robert Burns), which was no 602 at the Burns Memorial Exhibition in 1896. Taken either in 1816 or in 1826 (the year inscribed on the illustration in the catalogue from which my illustration is taken is not fully legible), it is a very early work by Howie, who may have known Gilbert Burns personally, and painted it for him as a friend.

A contemporary print provides evidence that photography was practised at 45 Princes Street as early as 1847, and further directory entries indicate the involvement of the Howie family in such work. I quote two of these:

1863-65 Howie and Bonne, artists and photographers, 45, Princes Street

1865-66 A. Howie, artist and photographer, 45, Princes Street

The A. Howie referred to above was presumably either another son, or a grandson, of James Howie, working in similar fields. There is no evidence, however, that A. Howie produced silhouettes. I consider it unlikely that James Howie himself was concerned with the photographic side of the family business; he worked for at least forty years as an artist (from, possibly, as early as 1816 until 1863), and he would probably have left the learning of photography to the younger generation. It is interesting to compare the story of the Howie family with that of John Field. Field was both a profilist and a landscape painter; his son Henry worked as a frame-maker, metal worker and seal engraver, as well as painting a few silhouettes. Henry's son, however, became a photographer. The Howie family, like the much better known Field family, provides an instance of how the descendant of a profilist took up photography as this began to supersede the art of the profilist.

As the two illustrated examples of Howie's work are so different, and painted many years apart, it is difficult to generalize about the type of work to be expected from him. The early silhouette (of Gilbert Burns) is plain in style, with only a little detail shown in the line of the collar and cravat. The later example (similar only in its long, sloping bust-line) is much better painted, with good detail of hair and clothing; gum arabic is used in ail the parts where the deepest shadow is required. The hair is particularly well shown, especially outside the main body of the profile. A fan formation of strokes of gum arabic separates the arm from the rest of the profile, but the strokes are fewer and less skilfully applied than those on the equivalent parts of profiles by Edward Foster or J. H. Gillespie. The sharp points at either end of the bust-line termination might assist in the identification of unsigned work.

The silhouette of Gilbert Burns is signed 'HOWIE'; the original bore a date (1816 or 1826) below the bust-line, after the artist's name. The later illustrated example (early 1830s) bears the one known trade label of the artist. It is stencilled, and bears the address at 64 Princes Street, Edinburgh, where Howie practised 1832-41.

Ills. 849-851