Annie Rose Laing, artist #MondayBlogs

A Helensburgh Breakfast

Annie Rose Laing came to my attention because of the painting “A Helensburgh Breakfast.” I was born in Helensburgh and this painting reminds me of the light shining in from the Gareloch in the mornings.  I love her choice of subject and on further investigation I discovered her propensity to paint sunlit tables where children and young women sat.  There are often flowers and a feeling of relaxation. You feel you want to sit at the table too.

At the breakfast table

Annie was born in Glasgow in 1869 and she studied at the Glasgow School of Art shortly after the famous Glasgow Boys. Glasgow became a major cultural centre and from 1890, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald added to the fame.

The Mirror

Annie exhibited her first picture in 1894 and in the following year she travelled to Algeria.  In 1896 her Algerian pictures were exhibited at the Glasgow Institute exhibition after which she turned to the portraits and interiors for which she became renowned.  In 1898, Annie married the artist, James Garden Laing, who was 17 years older than her and the couple lived and painted in Glasgow.  After her husband’s death she moved to Italy before settling in London in the mid-1920s.  She died in 1946 and was buried in Crowborough, East Sussex.

Sewing