12 Facts About James Pryde

James Pryde is principally remembered as one of the Beggarstaffs, his artistic partnership with William Nicholson, and for the poster designs and other graphic work they made between 1893 and 1899, which influenced graphic design for many years.

James Ferrier "Jimmy" Pryde was born at 23 London Street, Edinburgh, on 30 March 1866.

James Pryde was encouraged to paint by the Glasgow school painters James Guthrie and Edward Arthur Walton.

In 1899 James Pryde married Marian Symons, a musician; their daughter Betty was born in 1903.

Between 1894 and 1899 James Pryde tried his hand as an actor, playing small parts in several plays.

Ellen Terry's son Edward Gordon Craig, with whom James Pryde toured Scotland in 1895, described 'Jimmy' as 'one of the best painters who ever lived' and 'one of the biggest hearts on earth'.

James Pryde was an associate of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers from 1901 and vice-president in 1921.

James Pryde exhibited at the Goupil Gallery, the Leicester Galleries, the Grosvenor Gallery, London Salon, New English Art Club, Royal Hibernian Academy, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts and Royal Scottish Academy.

James Pryde became ill in 1939, and died on 24 February 1941 in St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington.

James Pryde did not belong to any artistic school or movement.

James Pryde's work was highly regarded in his lifetime; from 1912 he had the patronage of Annie Pearson, wife of Weetman Pearson, and from 1917 known as Viscountess Cowdray.

James Pryde had only two one-man shows, in 1911 at the Baillie Gallery and in 1933 at the Leicester Galleries.