John Miller Gray | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of John Miller Gray | |
| Born | (1850-07-19)July 19, 1850 |
| Died | March 22, 1894(1894-03-22) (aged 43) Edinburgh |
| Resting place | Newington, Edinburgh |
John Miller Gray (1850–1894) was a Scottish art critic and the first curator of theScottish National Portrait Gallery.
John Miller Gray was born on 19 July 1850 in Edinburgh, his father a shawl manufacturer who was bankrupted in 1857, his mother dying at his birth. He attended Mr. Munro's school inNewington (Archibald Munro; 1823–1898) and Munro's Clare Hall Academy in Edinburgh,[1] but was forced aged 16 to finish his education and take up work as an apprentice bank clerk at theBank of Scotland, where he remained for 18 years.[2] Although he detested the work, in his spare time he educated himself about art and worked as a critic.[3] He was particularly influenced by the art critic and writerWalter Pater, with whom he corresponded as well as reviewing some of Pater's work includingMarius the Epicurean.[4]
Gray was friendly with a number of prominent artists and public figures, including artistsWilliam Bell Scott andPhoebe Anna Traquair, and physician and writerJohn Brown.[3][2] In 1884 he was appointed first curator of the new Scottish National Portrait Gallery, initially at temporary premises and later inRobert Rowand Anderson's Queen Street building, which opened in 1889.[2]
He wrote regularly for periodicals includingAcademy and theEdinburgh Evening Courant and was chief art critic of theScottish Leader.[4] His publications included an 1880 book on Scottish artistGeorge Manson and several essays on the iconography ofRobert Burns.[2] His two-volumeMemoir and Remains was posthumously published by David Douglas in Edinburgh in 1895.
He died on 22 March 1894 of a brain haemorrhage, shortly before his 44th birthday, and was buried at Echo Bank cemetery in Newington, Edinburgh. He left most of his estate to the Gallery.[5][6][2]
A portrait of John Miller Gray byPatrick William Adam is in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (seeGallery).[7]
