The pianist

Self-taught as an artist, James McBey (1883-1959) was born in Newburgh near Aberdeen. He worked as a bank clerk from the age of fifteen, learning about art from books. After reading about etching, he became interested in printmaking, producing his first prints using a domestic mangle and building his own printing press. An admirer of Rembrandt's prints, McBey launched his artistic career in 1910 by travelling to the Netherlands. He returned to live in London before working in Egypt as an Official War Artist in 1917. McBey reached the peak of his popularity as an etcher in the 1920s, but when the print market collapsed due to the Depression, he mainly produced portraits on commission. McBey didn't associate himself with artistic movements, but saw himself as a traditional, skilled craftsman. Following his marriage in 1931, McBey lived mostly in Morocco, and during World War Two, the United States. He died in Tangier, Morocco, in 1959.

McBey remains one of Scotland's - and Britain's - greatest printmakers, who intelligently continued in the vein of James McNeill Whistler, and who along with his older contemporaries, William Strang, Muirhead Bone and particularly D.Y. Cameron, constituted an extraordinary body of Scottish etchers. By being essentially self-taught, McBey is arguably the most remarkable of them all.

Te Papa has two impressions of The Pianist, both given to the National Art Gallery by collector and benefactor Sir John Ilott (see also 1967-0002-20). Perhaps Ilott couldn't have enough of this work. In his book British Etchers 1850-1940 (1977), Kenneth Guichard called it 'a brilliant psychological study in the electric light which astonishes by the minimal delineation of the three heads'. At the time of its production, Malcolm Salaman agreed, commenting that 'The Pianist stands out by reason of the richly suggestive treatment of the dry-point of a very live and original conception'. The print, unusually, was deliberately made on the back of an old plate, accentuating the broken, heavy tone.

What then of the psychological message? Using the grand piano to distance the performer from the couple on the left is highly effective. While the husband (presumably) appears absorbed in the music, is his pretty young wife's tender glance indicative of her feelings towards the much older pianist who either appears absorbed in his music or is averting his gaze from her? You be the judge!

See:

Aberystwyth University Artist Collections, 'James McBey', https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/art/gallery-museum/collections/artist-collections/mcbeyjames/

National Galleries Scotland, https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/james-mcbey

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   June 2018