
Samuel Bough (1822–1878) was an English-born
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
who spent much of his career working in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
.
[''Nuttall Encyclopedia'' (1907) "Samuel Bough". Retrieved 8 June 2011.]
Life
He was born the third of five children in Abbey Street,
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...
in northern England, the son of James Bough (1794-1845), a shoemaker, and Lucy Walker, a cook. He was raised in relative poverty, but with a keen encouragement in the arts.
[''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004); "Samuel Bough"]
He was self-taught but mixed with local artists such as
Richard Harrington and
George Sheffield, and was strongly influenced by the work of Turner. After an unsuccessful attempt to live as an artist in Carlisle he obtained a job and as a theatre scenery painter in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
in 1845, later also working in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...
in the same role. Encouraged by
Daniel Macnee
Sir Daniel Macnee FRSE PRSA LLD (4 June 1806, Fintry, Stirlingshire – 17 January 1882, Edinburgh), was a Scottish portrait painter who served as president of the Royal Scottish Academy (1876).
Life
He was born at Fintry in Stirlingshire ...
to take up landscape painting he moved to
Hamilton from 1851-4 and worked there with
Alexander Fraser. ''In
Cadzow
Hamilton ( sco, Hamiltoun; gd, Baile Hamaltan ) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits south-east of Glasgow, south-west of Edinburgh and nor ...
Forest'' (1857, Bourne Fine Art), influenced by
Horatio McCulloch
Horatio McCulloch (November 1805 – 24 June 1867), sometimes written MacCulloch or M'Culloch, was a Scottish landscape painter.
Life
He was born in Glasgow in November 1805 the son of Alexander McCulloch, a cotton merchant, and his wife, Ma ...
, is a 'magnificent' portrait of two ancient trees. In 1854 he moved to
Port Glasgow
Port Glasgow ( gd, Port Ghlaschu, ) is the second-largest town in the Inverclyde council area of Scotland. The population according to the 1991 census for Port Glasgow was 19,426 persons and in the 2001 census was 16,617 persons. The most rece ...
to work on his technique of painting ships and harbours. He also began supplementing his income by illustrating books, before moving to
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
in 1855.

On coming to Edinburgh he lived in a terraced house at 5 Malta Terrace in the
Stockbridge area of the city.
[''Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory''; 1857-58] Following
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
*Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turnin ...
's example, he became a skillful painter of seaports. Examples include ''St. Andrews'' (Noble Grossart) and ''The Dreadnought from Greenwich Stairs: Sun Sinking into Vapour'' (1861, private collection).
He later fell out with McCulloch (their dogs apparently taking sides in the dispute). He was admired by
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as '' Treasure Island'', '' Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
and painted a view of his house at
Swanston, and the construction of
Dubh Artach
Dubh Artach (; ) is a remote skerry of basalt rock off the west coast of Scotland lying west of Colonsay and south-west of the Ross of Mull.
A lighthouse designed by Thomas Stevenson with a tower height of was erected between 1867 and 1872 ...
lighthouse. The engineering work for the latter was undertaken by the brothers
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the ...
and
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
Stevenson, Robert Louis' father and uncle respectively.
His health began to fail in 1877 and in January 1878 he suffered a stroke. He died of
prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that su ...
at his later home, Jordan Bank Villa in
Morningside, on the south side of the city. R. L. Stevenson penned a glowing obituary of Bough.
He was buried in
Dean Cemetery
The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and o ...
Edinburgh on 23 November 1878. The grave bears a bronze medallion of his head by
William Brodie
William Brodie (28 September 1741 – 1 October 1788), often known by his title of Deacon Brodie, was a Scottish cabinet-maker, deacon of a trades guild, and Edinburgh city councillor, who maintained a secret life as a housebreaker, partly for ...
and faces over a southern path to the south terrace.
Notes
References
*
* MacMillan, Duncan. (1990) ''Scottish Art 1460-1990.'' Edinburgh: Mainstream.
* Nicholson, Christopher. (1995) ''Rock Lighthouses of Britain: The End of an Era?'' Dunbeath, Caithness: Whittles.
Further reading
* (Winner of
Lakeland Book of the Year
The Lakeland Book of the Year, also known as the Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year is an award given annually for a book "set in or featuring Cumbria in some way", and is named for the Lake District of north west England. It was founded by w ...
1999)
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bough, Sam
1822 births
1878 deaths
People from Carlisle, Cumbria
Scottish landscape painters
British landscape painters
19th-century Scottish painters
Scottish male painters
Scottish watercolourists
Burials at the Dean Cemetery
Deaths from cancer in Scotland
Deaths from prostate cancer
19th-century Scottish male artists