James Docharty, 1829-1878

Born in Bonhill, Dumbarton, Docharty trained as a pattern designer at the school of design in Glasgow and also in France, then worked as a designer. By the age of 33, he had done well enough that he could devote himself to his true passion, landscape painting. He painted traditional highland scenes - mountains, moorlands, rivers and lochs - and was acclaimed for how well he captured the detail of the natural world. In 1876, he travelled to France, Italy and Egypt on the advice of his doctor, and brought back very promising sketches, but died shortly after his return in 1878.