The golfer

John Rankine Barclay (1884-1962) was a Scottish painter and printmaker. Born in Edinburgh, he studied at the Royal Institution and was a member of the Edinburgh Group, a group of progressive painters that included J.G. Spence Smith, D.M. Sutherland, William Oliphant Hutchison, William Mervyn Glass and A.R. Sturrock, the last a close associate. Barclay painted in both oil and watercolour, frequently depicting figures in a landscape or a town setting in an individual and often experimental style. His work was exhibited at RSA, RA, RSW and Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts.

As this etching and drypoint combination hints, Barclay was a golfer himself (the game was of course a Scottish invention), and illustrated for Golf Illustrated magazine in the 1920s, the likely time of this work. Sometimes Barclay depicted golfers in difficulties, but here the isolation yet happy serenity of an almost certainly Scottish player in plus-fours and trilby, contentedly puffing his pipe, indicates a likely successful drive. Will a wee dram of single malt await him at the 19th hole? The minimalism of the print is another striking characteristic, the low horizon denoted by a single, expertly drawn, line. It seems almost certain that here Barclay came under the influence of the leading Scottish printmaker and watercolourist of the era, D.Y. Cameron, who is excellently represented in Te Papa's collection. The print is believed to have been an early aquisition of Sir John Ilott, who donated it to the National Art Gallery in 1952.

See: http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/barclay_john_rankine/artist/1423/

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   February 2018