Samuel Bough RSA, RA.
1822 - 1878

Sam Bough was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England 1822 and died in Edinburgh,
1878 and lies buried in Dean Cemetery. Bough was an English-born landscape painter
who spent much of his career working in Scotland. He was self-taught and worked as a
theatre scenery painter in Manchester and Glasgow. He moved to Glasgow, where he
married an opera singer, and finally settled in Edinburgh in 1855, by which time he was
an established landscape artist. When he settled in Edinburgh and followed Turner in
becoming a skillful painter of sea ports. Examples include St. Andrews (Noble Grossart),
and The Dreadnought from Greenwich Stairs: Sun Sinking into Vapour (1861, Private
Collection). He later fell out with McCulloch, (their dogs apparently taking sides in
the dispute). He was admired by Robert Louis Stevenson and painted a view of his house
at Swanston, and the construction of Dubh Artach lighthouse. The engineering work for
the latter was undertaken by the brothers Thomas and David Stevenson, Robert
Louis' father and uncle respectively. R. L. Stevenson penned a glowing obituary of him.
He also spent time in the fishing villages of Fife painting coastal scenes. Regarded as
one of the most influential watercolourists of his time, noted for painting in the open-
air, he also worked in oils. Bough helped establish the Royal Scottish Society for Painters
in Watercolour, becoming its first Vice-President. He was elected an Associate of the Royal
Scottish Academy in 1856 and a Member in 1872. His Shipyard at Dumbarton
is held by the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, while his View of Ullswater is part
of the British Government Art Collection and his painting of Holmwood, Dorking dating
from 1856 was presented to the Tate Gallery by the Earl of Carlisle in 1904. His
extensive works in Scotland include Newark Castle, Port Glasgow (1854), Melrose
Abbey (1861), Broomielaw (1864), Storm at St Monan's, Fife (1867), The Carse of
Gowrie (1868) and a Distant View of Kirkwall, Orkney (1869). His Snowballing Outside
Edinburgh University is held by the National Gallery of Scotland. Daniel Macnee encouraged
Sam to take up landscape painting. He then moved to Hamilton from 1852-4 and worked
there with Alexander Fraser. In Cadzow Forest (1857, Bourne Fine Art),
influenced by McCulloch, is a 'magnificent' portrait of two ancient trees.