Pryde achieved fame in the 1890s with the posters he produced with his brother-in-law William Nicholson, under the name ‘Beggarstaff Brothers’. However, he also created some extraordinary work of his own. In 1898 Nicholson made a series of ten London Types, published as lithographs by Heinemann, and it was probably in a spirit of rivalry that Pryde embarked upon a project to depict celebrated London criminals and rascals of earlier days whose exploits had featured in The Newgate Calendar (1828). The scheme did not materialise as planned, though a few of the individuals became the subjects of lithographs. The figures in this drawing have been identified as the highwaymen, thieves and murderers Gamaliel Ratsey, The Giant, John Price, Dick Turpin, Cartouche and Jack Sheppard. But even without such identifications to hand, the spectator can see from their poses and slouches, swaggers and posturings, that this is not a nice crowd to encounter after dark.

James Pryde, 1866-1941

Pryde does not fit into art movement or school. He was a one-off, a romantic with intense imaginative power, acclaimed by his contemporaries for his vision and originality. A bohemian by nature, he had a melancholic personality that became darker as he got older, and this is reflected in his paintings. His work in the 1910s and early 1920s led fellow artists and critics to regard him as one of the great British painters of the period, but through indolence and, later, alcoholism he failed to capitalise on his exceptional talent. He died in poverty. 

Born in Edinburgh, where his father was Headmaster of Edinburgh Ladies' College, Pryde attended art classes at the Royal Institution and the Royal Scottish Academy's Life Class. In 1888 he enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris, but stayed for only a few months. Later he expressed disdain for formal art training. In 1890 he moved to Hertfordshire, sharing lodgings with his sister, Mabel, who was studying art at Herkomer’s Academy in Bushey. There she met and married William Nicholson. Shortly afterwards Pryde went to visit them for a fortnight and stayed two years. During this period he and Nicholson collaborated as "The Beggarstaffs" on the production of posters, a partnership that revolutionised poster design. 

Pryde was a virtuoso in the handling of paint. His earlier work was mainly studies of people, often ruffians and beggars who frequented the streets and closes of Edinburgh's Old Town. His later work is almost all imaginary pieces - ruins, the façades of buildings, lofty arches and balconies, and gloomy rooms with very high ceilings - usually executed in a restricted range of colours and low tones. Pryde was a master of suggestion, his subject-matter at times romantic, mysterious, claustrophobic, mouldering, sinister or menacing and often all of these. In his later work the figures are invariably insignificant in relation to their surroundings.