Sir James Lawton Wingate RSA 1846-1924

James Lawton Wingate was born in Kelvinhaugh, Glasgow, in 1846. At age 12, he entered his uncle's office as a junior clerk and during his five years’ service, had some art training in the morning classes at the Glasgow School of Art.

Although several portraits, including one of himself, are known, his landscapes were what confirmed his high position in Scottish Art. Despite this, it was only during the last twenty years of his life that his work found general acceptance. Wingate was elected President of the RSA in 1919, the same year that he was knighted. He resigned as president shortly before his death in 1924.