John Bulloch Souter
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John "Jack" Bulloch Souter (4 June 1890 – 10 May 1972), also known as J.B. Souter, was a
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
painter, sculptor, and illustrator, best known for his
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-themed work '' The Breakdown''.


Biography

Born in
Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
in northeast Scotland, he was a skilled pupil at Ferryhill School, then
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, and then the Allan Fraser School in
Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...
. He won the Byrne Travelling Scholarship awarded by the Scottish Education Department which enabled him to comfortably tour the European continent. During this continental tour, he was purportedly much impressed by
Diego Velázquez Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptised 6 June 15996 August 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the Noble court, court of King Philip IV of Spain, Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age. He i ...
,
Johannes Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , ; see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. He is considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch ...
, and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin. Following the outbreak of
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, Souter served in the
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and the
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. Upon returning to civilian life, he married Christian Grace Reid and relocated to
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. During the post-war period, he garnered a reputation as a talented portraitist, and his many subjects included such personalities as
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,
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, and
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. Souter exhibited his creations at
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, the
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,
Royal Scottish Academy The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country's national academy of art. It promotes contemporary art, contemporary Scottish art. The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy ...
and the
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's Summer Exhibition where his notorious painting ''The Breakdown'' was exhibited in 1926 to great controversy. Within days of its exhibition, the British Colonial office contacted the Royal Academy and demanded the immediate removal of the picture as a perceived threat to the
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. Following negative attacks in the national and world press, Souter's wife convinced him to destroy the painting—his greatest work—which he reluctantly assented to do, but he clandestinely retained his preparatory drawings. Amid the chaos and nightly bombing of
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, he labored in the Censorship Department as a translator but spent the majority of his time restoring paintings at
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. In 1952, he retired to Aberdeen where ten years later, despite his failing eyesight, he drew upon his earlier sketches to reconstruct his original work ''The Breakdown'' nearly thirty years after its destruction. Souter remained in Aberdeen until his death in 1972.


Footnotes


References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Souter, John Bulloch 1890 births 1972 deaths Artists from Aberdeen Scottish illustrators 20th-century Scottish painters Scottish male painters Scottish male sculptors 20th-century Scottish male artists