John Miller 1911-1975

Anyone who knew John Miller well must often have marvelled not only at the devotion with which he pursued his own art, but at the tireless enthusiasm with which he viewed other artists’ work and made from it a notable collection. In hisearlier days even stringency of space could not curb this latter trait and he had perforce to call on his neighbours to lend him walls on which to hang his acquisitions. 

There is no doubt that this rare if not unique indulgence must be seen as an extension of his teaching in the Glasgow School of Art which occupied so manyof his years. On his work there were many influences—the Impressionists above all.

More subtly and earlier were the marked effects of his visits to Hospitalfield, where James Cowie not only in his own pictures declared a very personal approach to nature and to art, but nightly in his dinner-table arguments turned his guests’ minds to the more recondite implications of their art even where he did not convince the mutterly.

France was an early Meccaof John’s travelling but latterly his interest turned almost completely to translating the qualities of his own country, especially those of Iona and, of course, the richness of his home ground, Rhu. Water never seemed to be absent from his search when he was landscaping and, inevitably, boats held a fascination for him.

Latterly he turned to flowers for his inspiration and in the best of these works can be seen most finely displayed the progress of his developments from the classically designed quiet ude of his early landscapes to the exploitation and mastery of an eerie refinement of light. Possibly he is not concerned with the individual flowers but they are concerned with him in so far as they aroused in him avision and a power which are his own. 

It is ironicthat all this long progress might never have taken place had it not been for ill-health, for John, after his days in Queen’s Park School in Glasgow, started his adult life in a bank and might well have continued there until retirement. But illness decreed that he should belaid up for several years and it was while he was in hospital that, through chance acquaintance, his interest in art was intensified and he decided to go to Art School.

He enrolled in 1936 at the age of 25 years and took his Post-Diploma in 1941. He joined the st aff in 1944 and was still a member at the time of his death on 18th January 1975. During this period he was elected a member ofthe Society of Scottish Artists and in 1952 became a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water-colour of which he was President from 1970 till 1974. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1957 and a full Member in 1966.

His Diploma Work is “July, Brodick Pier”. He devoted much of his time on the Councils of many Art Societies whose proceedings he usually enlivened with sallies of wit, besides which he enriched them readily with the guidance of an able and perceptive intelligence. His work is held privately in many collections but is to be seen publicly in the following Permanent Collections—Glasgow Art Galleries, Paisley Art Gallery, Dundee Art Gallery, Newport Art Gallery, the Arts Council Collection and the Corporation of Edinburgh (Watson Bequest). 

From the Memorial tribute in the 1975 Exhibition, the Academy purchased his “Fading Poppies”, a work which expresses much that he sought for years to convey and has here done so with complete conviction and authority. He is survived by his widow Barbara and three children. 

RSA Obituary by William Armour RSA, transcribed from the 1975 RSA Annual Report