Archibald Hartrick

Scottish painter Archibald Hartrick was also a book illustrator, especially of volumes of poetry. He spent the summer of 1886 in Pont Aven, where he met Paul Gauguin. Hartrick had been taught by his stepfather in watercolor painting, but Hartrick first studied medicine at Edinburgh before moving to the Slade School of Art in London, and in Paris to the Académie Julian, where he became friendly with Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Toulouse-Lautreuc. In 1896 Hartrick married the daughter of his stepfather, Lily Blatherwick, who was also a painter. He himself was born in India at Bangalore as the son of an Army officer. He became a painter, illustrator, draftsman and lithographer, mainly of figure subjects. In 1932 he published the textbook “Lithography as Fine Art”.

His entry was listed as Football at Fettes School, Scotland. Fettes College was founded in 1870 as a private independent day and boarding school in Edinburgh. The colors of the school - chocolate brown and magenta - can be found in the player’s jersey in the painting Winter (pen, ink and watercolor on paper, 43 x 29 cm), which could well be the exhibited work.