James Caw

Epithet: Artist (1813-1892)

Record type: Biographies

Biography: Born in 1813 to Samuel Caw and a woman whose maiden name was Playfair, he spent his early years in Glasgow. The first painting he exhibited was of a farm kitchen in Arran at the Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition in 1838. He painted the pair of oil paintings for Mr and Mrs Tom Kermode of Claghbane, Isle of Man in 1843. The next year, his fame growing, he exhibited paintings of Sir John Tobin and the family of Duncan Gibb at the Liverpool Academy.

It is thought that for much of his life, James Caw travelled from commission to commission, rarely staying grounded in one place for long periods at a time. Between 1850 and 1878 he exhibited with the royal Scottish Academy six times and at Glasgow's Institue of Fine Art three times. Most of these were portraits of Scottish sitters and he is said to have specialised in portraits of children. He became fashionable with his contemporaries in the 1880s after he painted David Campbell, the Provost of Paisley. He later died at Larkhill Cottage, Rothesay in 1892.

Occupation / profession: Artist

Gender: Male

Date of birth: 1813

Date of death: 1892

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