Random Inspiration: John MacDonald Aiken

Scotsman John MacDonald Aiken was born in Aberdeen in 1880, and remained there in the great "Grey City" for most of his life.  His training began with a six-year apprenticeship to Robert Gibb, a portraitist, painter of military scenes, and the eventual official Painter and Limner to the King of Scotland.  After his study with Gibb, Aiken attended Gray's School of Science and Art in Aberdeen, which, founded in 1885, was one of the earliest fine art institutions established in Scotland.  Perhaps seeking a more cosmopolitan education, Aiken next continued his training in London at the Royal College of Art where he studied under Gerald Moira, a muralist and one of the founding members of the National Portrait Society.  Before returning to Aberdeen to assume the Head position of Gray's, Aiken travelled to the continent, where he completed his studies in Florence.

After serving in the British military during the First World War, Aiken resettled in Scotland, and devoted himself full-time to his painting.  He exhibited regularly at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, and at the Royal Academy, London, but it seems his most significant award came at the 1923 Paris Salon, where his portrait of Harry Townend earned Aiken the Silver Medal.  In 1937, in recognition of his work, he was elected a Royal Scottish Academician.

Aiken's early works display a decorative aesthetic which was greatly influenced by his study with Gerald Moira.  Later, aspects of his early training began to come to the forefront, but it may be his admiration for the work of his contemporary, Irishman Sir William Orpen (see Aiken's copies of two Orpen paintings below), which shaped much of his later art.

Aiken passed away in 1961, at the age of 81.