British Art
John Duncan (1866-1945)
John Duncan was
born in Dundee, Scotland, the son of a cattle dealer, and was studying at the
Dundee School of Art by the age of eleven. in 1923.
He was a great experimenter with techniques and much of his
work is in tempera. His subject-matter was rooted in the Celtic Revival and the
Pre-Raphaelite tradition, but he also painted 'straight' landscapes.
Many regarded him as a mystic, and he confessed to hearing
'fairy music' while he painted. This rather fay quality led him into trouble
when he fell in love with and married a girl who believed she had discovered the
Holy Grail in a well at Glastonbury; the marriage was not a success and his wife
eventually left him. Mary Queen of Scots Tristan and Isolde (1912) Tristan has been sent to Ireland to conduct Iseult to
Cornwall, where she is to marry his uncle, King Mark; but on the voyage they
unwittingly drink the love potion intended for Mark, and fall passionately in
love, with devasting results.
