Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lauder, James Eckford

568746Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 32 — Lauder, James Eckford1892John Miller Gray

LAUDER, JAMES ECKFORD (1811–1869), painter, younger brother of Robert Scott Lauder [q.v.], was born at Silvermills, Edinburgh, on 15 Aug. 1811 (see inscription on the back of his brother's monument in Warriston cemetery, Edinburgh). In his early art studies he was aided by his elder brother, and he attended the antique class of the Trustees' Academy from July 1830 till June 1833. In 1834 he joined his brother in Italy, where he remained nearly four years. On his return he settled in Edinburgh, and from 1832—when he was first represented by 'The Gipsy Girl'—he was a very regular contributor to the exhibitions of the Royal Scottish Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1839, and a full member in 1846. He also exhibited fourteen works in the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the Suffolk Street Gallery, London, between 1841 and 1853; and in 1847 his 'Parable of Forgiveness' gained a prize of 200l. at the Westminster Hall competition. Among his more important pictures were 'Julia and Lucetta,' a scene from the 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,' 1840; 'Day and Night,' 1845; 'Lorenzo and Jessica,' 1849; 'Bailie Duncan Macwheeble at Breakfast,' 1854; 'The Parable of the Ten Virgins,' 1855, engraved by Lumb Stocks; and 'Hagar,' 1857, now in the National Gallery of Scotland. He died at Edinburgh on 27 March 1869.

[Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School; information from family; books of Trustees' Academy; catalogues of exhibitions.]

J. M. G.