Elected ARSA: 15 March 1916
Elected RSA: 8 February 1922
David Alison was born in Dysart in 1882 and at an early age showed signs of artistic talent. He was sent to a lithographic studio for his first training and later he went to the Glasgow School of Art, where he worked for four years. After a year in Italy, he attended the Painting School of the Royal Scottish Academy; then followed a period of study in Paris and also in Spain, where the work of Velasquez made a lasting impression on him.
Alison had his first studio in Dysart and thereafter in Edinburgh. In 1913 he was appointed to the staff of the Edinburgh College of Art, He married in the same year and his portrait, “The Artist’s Wife,” was much admired when it was first exhibited.
In 1916 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and was appointed head of the school of drawing and painting at the Edinburgh College of Art. He was also a Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. In 1944 he resigned his post at the Edinburgh College of Art and went to London.
Between the two world wars, Alison carried out a series of distinguished portraits, among others, of the Duke of Roxburghe, the Earl of Mar and Kellie and the Earl of Strathmore. He also painted portrait groups and probably reached his fullest height as an artist in paintings of his family and his intimate friends.
