James Pittendrigh Macgillivray


Dr. James Pittendrigh MacGillivray was a prominent Scottish sculptor. He was also a keen artist, musician and poet. He was born in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the son of a sculptor, and studied under William Brodie and John Mossman. His works include public statues of Robert Burns in Irvine, Lord Byron in Aberdeen, the 3rd Marquess of Bute in Cardiff, John Knox in Edinburgh's St Giles Cathedral, and William Ewart Gladstone in Coates Crescent Gardens, Edinburgh.
After training under Brodie in Edinburgh, Macgillivray worked for nine years in Glasgow as assistant to Mossman and James Steel. In 1894 he returned to Edinburgh, where he lived at "Ravelston Elms" on Murrayfield Road.
Macgillivray was a Scottish nationalist, and associated both with Patrick Geddes' Fin de Siècle Scottish cultural revival and Hugh MacDiarmid's later Scottish Renaissance movement. He contributed illustrations to the Spring and Autumn volumes of The Evergreen: A Northern Seasonal published by Patrick Geddes and Colleagues in Edinburgh in 1895. He became a member of the Scottish Arts Club in the late 1890s.
His work was influenced greatly by Pictish designs, and these are on display in Perth. Alloway village hall contains his sculpture of Robert Burns.
He became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1901 and designed the Academicians' robes. He was appointed the King's Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland in 1921. He was influential in the development of Arts teaching in Scotland, being associated with the establishment of Edinburgh College of Art. In 1904 he wrote a Special Report on the Schools of Art in Scotland and in 1906 a report on the creation of a Municipal Art School in Edinburgh, drawing on his knowledge of practice in Brussels, Berlin and Paris.
MacGillivray also published two volumes of poetry in Scots – Pro Patria in 1915 and Bog Myrtle and Peat Reek in 1922.
He was a member of Glasgow Art Club for over fifty years, closely associating himself with the Glasgow Boys. On the evening of 28 October 1932 the Club hosted a dinner in his honour He was also a co-founder with James Paterson, E.A. Hornel and George Henry of "The Scottish Arts Review".
He is buried in the tiny Gogar Kirkyard, close to the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters at Gogarburn, with his wife Frieda who died in 1910. The grave is of his own design, depicting them side by side. Their daughter Ina MacGillivray and Ehrna are buried with them.

Pupils

Pupils include sculptor Ottilie Maclaren Wallace.

Notable works