Joseph Farquharson
Scottish, 1846-1935
“The Flower Garden”
Oil on canvas; 20 x 24 inches
Signed lower right
Joseph Farquharson was born in Aberdeenshire as the son of a Scottish laird. He studied art at the Board of Manufacture School in Edinburgh under Peter Graham (1836-1921). In the 1880s he built a reputation as a painter of snow and sheep. Wishing to further expand his artistic opportunities, Farquharson traveled to Paris to study at the studio of Carolus-Duran (1837-1917) from 1880 to 1884. It was in this time that he began to incorporate figures in his paintings. From Paris, he traveled to Cairo and painted many scenes of Egyptian life. The artist returned to Scotland after his time in Egypt and applied his studies to his later works. His use of French outdoor painting techniques is evident and he was particularly adept at capturing the warm light of sunrise and sunset. Well-versed in Scottish literature, Farquharson often assigned titles taken from famous poems by John Milton, Robert Burns and Shakespeare to his paintings.
Farquharson exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1859, the Royal Academy in London from 1886 to 1893, at the Tate Gallery and at the Royal Institution in London in 1896. He was elected as an associate of the Royal Academy in 1900 and a member in 1915. His paintings are in numerous public collections and museums, including the Leeds Museums and Galleries, Dundee Art Galleries, Manchester Museums, National Museums Liverpool, and Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums.