William Brown Macdougall (16 December 1868 – 20 April 1936) was a Scottish artist, wood engraver, etcher and book illustrator.

Macdougall was born inGlasgow on 16 December 1868. He was married toMargaret Armour, the translator, poet and playwright.^[1][2] They collaborated withAubrey Beardsley on many projects and were members of the prestigiousNew English Art Club. The couple lived in the Uplands, Loughton, and then for many years at Debden Green,Loughton inEssex, home at the time of a noted artistic and scientific community, where aBlue Plaque commemorating them was unveiled in 2012.^[3][4]

Macdougall received his art education at theGlasgow Academy and at theAcadémie Julian in Paris, also working in the studios ofBouguereau,Jean-Paul Laurens andTony Robert-Fleury, and becoming a member of theSalon des Artistes Français. He contributed toThe Yellow Book,The Evergreen, andThe Savoy in the 1890s. His work tended to be somewhat sombre and was clearly influenced by Aubrey Beardsley andWilliam Morris. He provided a frontispiece portrait ofRobert Louis Stevenson for Margaret's first book, and illustrations for her books of poetry as well as her translations from medieval German. He only illustrated for a very brief period between 1896 and 1898, but contributed greatly to this form of art – his decorative vignettes seen in "The Fall of the Nibelungs", "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil" and "The Blessed Damozel" owe much toArt Nouveau andArts and Crafts Movement motifs.^[5]

He died on 20 April 1936 inLoughton. After William's death Margaret returned to Edinburgh, where she died in 1943.

Macdougall also painted in oils and other mediums.

His work was exhibited at theRoyal Academy andRoyal Scottish Academy in 1888, 1928 and 1929, at theNew English Art Club,Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1927,Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool,Manchester City Art Gallery and theParis Salon.William’s sister Agnes donated 6 prints and a plaster bust of William done by Frank Mowbray Taubman while they were both students in Paris in the late 1890s to TheKelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow.

The British Museum has a collection of 21 prints by Macdougall and other works are held by galleries throughout the UK.

There is an illustrated article with bibliography on him in the Imaginative Illustration Society's Studies in Illustration no.84 Summer 2023

• The Home and Early Haunts of Robert Louis Stevenson Margaret Armour and William Brown Macdougall
• The Book of Ruth William Brown Macdougall (1896)
• Chronicles of Strathearn William Brown Macdougall (1896)
• Thames Sonnets and Semblances Margaret Armour, William Brown Macdougall (1897)
• The Fall of the Nibelungs Margaret Armour and William Brown Macdougall (1897)
• The Eerie Book Margaret Armour and William Brown Macdougall (1898)
• Isabella, or The Pot of Basil John Keats, William Brown Macdougall (1898)
• The Shadow of Love, and other poems ... Margaret Armour and William Brown Macdougall (1898)
• Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Edward FitzGerald, William Brown Macdougall (1898)
• The Blessed Damozel Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Brown Macdougall and William Michael Rossetti (1898)
• Gudrun Margaret Armour and William Brown Macdougall (1928)
• The Fields of France Agnes Mary Francis Robinson and William Brown Macdougall (1905)
• (see Internet Archive)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toWilliam Brown MacDougall.

• Gallery of MacDougall paintings at Art UK – Uncovering the Nation's Art Collection
• W. B. Macdougall atLibrary of Congress, with 2 library catalogue records (under 'MacDougall, William Brown')
• [https://www.bookillustration.org Imaginative Book Illustration Society]

• 1868 births
• 1936 deaths
• 19th-century Scottish painters
• Scottish male painters
• 20th-century Scottish painters
• Scottish illustrators
• Art Nouveau illustrators
• Art Nouveau painters
• Artists from Glasgow
• 19th-century Scottish male artists
• 20th-century Scottish male artists

• Use dmy dates from July 2017
• Use British English from July 2017
• Commons category link is on Wikidata