Reflections: The light and life of John Henry Lorimer

In this first exhibition of John Henry Lorimer (1856-1936), curators Charlotte Lorimer and David Patterson present his reflections of light, identity, family, femininity and home. Each theme introduces an additional focus for the paintings, objects a... more

Throughout his life, John Henry Lorimer sought to represent the clarity and diversity of light. His first watercolour, painted in 1864 when he was eight years old, pictured Kinghorn Loch. The sketch has since been lost. But his choice to represent a ... more

John Henry Lorimer was born in Edinburgh on 12th August 1856 and died in Fife on 4th November 1936. During his 80 years, he completed nearly 400 oil paintings, including almost 130 portraits. Portraiture became his main source of income, a talent tha... more

John Henry, known by his family as JH, was the third of six children. The eldest was James, then came Hannah, JH, Alice, Louise and Robert. Their parents, Hannah Stodart and Professor James Lorimer, first met in 1848 on a ferry from Leith to Fife, ho... more

All his life, John Henry was inspired and supported by the women around him: his mother, his sisters, his nieces and the nanny that raised them, as well as the housemaids that looked after the family homes in Edinburgh and Fife. He was brought up by ... more

For John Henry, painting and storytelling seemed to go hand in hand. The setting he returned to over and over again was Kellie. The characters within his frames were his friends, neighbours and family members. The plots were told through everyday mom... more

Poet Christine de Luca has written 12 poems for the exhibition Reflections: The Light and Life of John Henry Lorimer. The first was inspired by the painting The Flight of the Swallows.