William Alister Macdonald

Watercolours from Thurso, the Thames, and Tahiti

Iain Macdonald

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Hardback

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English

Unicorn Publishing Group
02 September 2024

Watercolours; Individual artists, art monographs; Biography: arts & entertainment

The life of Scottish watercolourist William Alister Macdonald (1861-1956) contained more mystery and intrigue than a novel by the authors he knew as friends. Mid-life in the early 1900s he painted widely across Britain, Europe and North Africa. Aged sixty, abandoning his wife and son in London, he settled in Tahiti, where he befriended authors Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall and Zane Grey. Critical acclaim of his work peaked in 1935 with the discovery of over 120 watercolours capturing London streets and lost panoramas from the Thames, its river life and trade at the turn of the last century, now part of the Wakefield Collection at London’s Guildhall. Yet in Tahiti his reputation has endured with appreciation of his timeless, exquisite landscapes and studies of paradise. This first fully illustrated biography of Macdonald’s life provides a long-overdue opportunity for his European and Polynesian work to be reappraised and his story told.

By: Iain Macdonald
Imprint: Unicorn Publishing Group
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 220mm, Width: 220mm,
Weight: 1.000kg
ISBN: 9781916846241
ISBN 10: 1916846246
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 02 September 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dr Iain Macdonald is Associate Professor in the Department of Design Innovation, Maynooth University, Ireland. Born in Edinburgh and graduating from Edinburgh College of Art, he began his career at BBC Television Centre as a motion graphic designer and was a Senior Designer nominated for a BAFTA before becoming a commercials director at the Moving Picture Company. Since 2010 he has been a Design academic achieving a Doctorate while working at Edinburgh Napier University. His research and publications cover motion graphics, co-design and public health communication.

Reviews for William Alister Macdonald: Watercolours from Thurso, the Thames, and Tahiti

""In exploring the life of his great-great-uncle, Maynooth University professor Iain Macdonald marries the mundane with the extraordinary. ... The story behind [William Alister] Macdonald's calm watercolours could inspire great restlessness in the right reader."" Gemma Tipton, Irish Times ""Referred to as a “Tahitian Turner”, the Scottish watercolourist William Alister Macdonald (1861-1956) led a life of mystery and intrigue fit for a novel by the writers he knew as friends."" ArtMag