Victoria Crowe

OBE DHC FRSE MA(RCA) RSA RSW

1945

Born on 8 May (Victory in Europe / VE Day) in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. 

1956–61 

Attended St Ursuline Convent Grammar School, Wimbledon, London. 

1961–5

Studied at Kingston School of Art. Tutors included Prunella Clough, Lionel Bulmer and Graham Arnold. Fuelled by an interest in Russian icon paintings and Eisenstein’s films, visited Moscow and Leningrad via East Berlin and Warsaw with National Union of Students in 1964.

1965–8

Undertook further study at Royal College of Art in London. Tutors included Carel Weight, Leonard Rosoman and Peter Blake. Talks by luminaries such as John Cage, Iris Murdoch and E.H. Gombrich provided extra stimulus. At her postgraduate exhibition, she was invited by Head of Drawing and Painting Robin Philipson to teach at Edinburgh College of Art. Among the staff when she arrived were Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston and David Michie. For the next thirty years she worked as a part-time lecturer in the School of Drawing and Painting while developing her own artistic practice. 

1967

Married fellow artist Michael Walton. 

1968

David Murray Landscape Award, Royal College of Art.

1970

First solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery (Aitken Dott & Son Ltd) in Edinburgh. The Scottish Gallery have represented her ever since. By now settled at Kittleyknowe, a hamlet near Carlops in the Pentland hills south-west of Edinburgh. One of her neighbours was the 68-year-old shepherdess Jenny Armstrong. 

1970–85

Second study trip to Russia in 1971, visiting Moscow, Leningrad, Vladimir and Suzdal. Recipient of several bursaries and awards, including the Anne Redpath Award and the Scottish Arts Council Printmaking Bursary. Study trip to Denmark and Finland in 1973. Son Ben born in April 1973 and daughter Gemma in June 1976. Elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Landscapes and interiors predominate, with neighbour Jenny Armstrong featuring consistently. Early portrait commissions of Winifred Rushforth and R.D. Laing are well received and signal an important new development in her work. First solo exhibition at the Thackeray Gallery, London, in 1983, where she exhibited regularly until 2007.

1985 

Her close friend Jenny Armstrong died.

1985–90

Major awards in this period include the Hunting Group art prize, the Daler/Rowney Prize for Watercolour (Royal Academy, London) and the Chris Beetles Prize at the Royal Watercolour Society Open Exhibition, London. Elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. Portraits include Kathleen Raine and Janet Vaughan for National Portrait Gallery, London; Tam Dalyell for West Lothian District Council; and Lord Wemyss for National Trust for Scotland.

1990

Filmed for STV series Portrait of the Wild. Moved from Kittleyknowe to nearby West Linton.

1992 

Sir William Gillies Bequest funds first visit to Italy. Italian art and landscape becomes an increasingly important theme in her practice. 

1992–4

Invited by Artists for Nature Foundation and funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature to join a group of international artists working on a conservation project in Poland (1992) and Extremadura, Spain (1994). 

1995 

Son Ben died of mouth cancer. A trust established in his name to raise awareness and funds to tackle oral cancers in young people.

1997

Commissioned by the Danish National Portrait Gallery to paint the Danish Resistance leader Ole Lippmann for the twentieth century collection of portraits at Frederiksborg Castle, Copenhagen. Invited by Glasgow Museums and Galleries and Artists for Nature Foundation to take part in the Tiger, Tiger project at Bandhavgarh National Park, India.

2000–2002

Invited artist for shortlist of Jesus 2000 commission, Glasgow Museums and Galleries. A Shepherd’s Life: Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe staged at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The exhibition wins wide critical and popular acclaim, and goes on to tour seven further venues in Scotland and England. First major book Painted Insights is published.

2003

Acquired a studio in Venice on the island of Giudecca. The multi-layered history of the city begins to impact her work.

2004 

Awarded an OBE for Services to Art. Presented the Sir William Gillies Award, Royal Scottish Academy, for travel and research. 

2004–7

Appointed Senior Visiting Scholar at St Catherine’s College, University of Cambridge. Work created from this post shown in Plant Memory, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, in 2007. The exhibition subsequently tours across Scotland. Portrait of Thea Musgrave commissioned by Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

2008

Commission of large-scale tapestry Two Views. Woven at the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh. Currently hangs in Boughton House, Northamptonshire.

2009

Awarded Doctor Honoris Causa (DHC), University of Aberdeen. The exhibition A Shepherd’s Life: Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe recreated and exhibited at the Fleming Collection, London.

2010

Elected Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh International Festival exhibition, Reflection, at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. Begins exhibiting with Browse & Darby, London.

2011–12

Commissioned for a major suite of paintings for a redesigned period home in the Scottish Borders. The tapestry Large Tree Group, based on the painting of the same name, is commissioned and woven at the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh. Currently hangs in the National Museum of Scotland. Appointed Deputy President of the Royal Scottish Academy. First critical monograph, Victoria Crowe by Duncan Macmillan, is published.

2013

The exhibition Fleece to Fibre, based on the making of the Large Tree Group tapestry, is shown during the Edinburgh International Festival at the Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh. It tours thereafter to the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne; Inverness; and London. Commissioned portrait of Peter Higgs for the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Awarded a prestigious tapestry commission by the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers for the livery company’s headquarters in the City of London. 

2014

Participates in BBC Radio 4 Start the Week ‘Spirit of Place’ episode hosted by Andrew Marr. Edinburgh International Festival exhibition, Real and Reflected, at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh. Permanence and Fragility solo exhibition at Ruskin Library, University of Lancaster.

2015

Invited contributor, Europa Nostra: A Sense of Place, University of Cambridge. Artist-in-residence at The Royal Drawing School Artist Studios, Dumfries House.

2016

Commissioned portrait of Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell for the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

2017

The Leathersellers’ Tapestry, woven at the Dovecot Tapestry Studio, Edinburgh, is installed in the Dining Hall of the Leathersellers’ building. The finished tapestry is 40 metres long.

Awarded Sir William Gillies Research Award by the Royal Scottish Academy supporting the making of a video projection responding to Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle.

Winterreise: A Parallel Journey, a collaboration with opera singer Matthew Rose and pianist Gary Matthewman, is performed at the Britten Studio, Snape Maltings, and at the Wigmore Hall, London. 

2018

Victoria Crowe: Beyond Likeness is exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and showcases over fifty portraits from the 1960s to the present.

A commissioned portrait of HRH Prince Charles, the Duke of Rothesay, unveiled.

Edinburgh International Festival exhibition, A Certain Light, held at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh.

Winterreise: A Parallel Journey is performed at the Weesp Chamber Music Festival, Netherlands.

2019

Victoria Crowe: 50 Years of Painting shown at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh. This major survey documents the artist’s career from student work to the present day. Invited residency at Dumfries House.

50 Years: Drawing & Thinking held at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh.

2021

Another Time, Another Place exhibited at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 29 April–29 May 2021.

Limited edition print (woodblock, screen-print and lithograph) Resilient Tree, Rising Moon created and launched at Edinburgh Printmakers.

2022

Resonance of Time exhibited at Flowers Gallery, 8 April – 21 May 2022.

Works by Victoria Crowe already within the Chatsworth collection exhibited as part of Living With Art We Love, presented by the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth House, 26 March – 9 October.

Works by Victoria Crowe exhibited at Dalkeith Palace from Friday 15 April to Monday 18 April 2022.

London Original Print Fair, Somerset House, London, 26–29 May 2022.

Masterpiece with Flowers Gallery, the Royal Hospital Chelsea, 30 June – 6 July 2022.

The Love of Print: 50 Years of Glasgow Print Studio, Kelvingrove, Glasgow, 18 November 2022 – 12 March 2023.

2023

Elemental: Recent RSA Residencies for Scotland Artists at the RSA, Edinburgh, 24 June – 23 July 2023.

Academicians VI at the Glasgow Print Studio, 24 November 2023 – 27 January 2024

Low Winter Sun at The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 30 November – 23 December 2023

Orcadian Series: Above Stromness, a gun-tufted wool rug collaboration between Victoria Crowe and Dovecot Studios

2024

Glasgow Print Studio at the London Art Fair, Islington, 17–21 January 2024

Publications

Another Time, Another Place

Victoria Crowe and Christine De Luca

Another Time, Another Place comprises twelve paintings by Victoria Crowe which inspired twelve poems by Christine De Luca to form a beautiful conversation between an artist and a poet.

50 Years of Painting

Susan Mansfield, with contributions by Duncan Macmillan and Guy Peploe

This publication, timed to coincide with a major display of her work at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh during 2019, gives a fresh insight into her practice from a variety of perspectives.

50 Years of Drawing & Thinking

A catalogue to accompany Victoria Crowe’s September 2019 exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, 50 Years: Drawing & Thinking. This beautiful catalogue includes written contributions from Victoria Crowe, her husband Mike Walton and daughter Gemma Gray, providing a unique insight into her life and work.

Victoria Crowe: Beyond Likeness

Duncan Macmillan, Julie Lawson and Victoria Crowe

This book was published to accompany the exhibition of the same name at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. The book tells Crowe’s own story – both professional and personal – through her art. She has developed an approach to portraiture that seeks to do more than record the outward appearance of a person: she aims to represent something of the inner life. The book features portraits of the artist’s family, composer Ronald Stevenson, pioneer medical scientist Dame Janet Vaughan, poet Kathleen Raine, actor Graham Crowden, Professor Peter Higgs and many others.

Victoria Crowe

Duncan Macmillan

With great depth and perception, the author considers the work of one of Scotland's leading painters from her earliest days at Kingston School of Art, through to her most recent commissions, setting it in the wider context of artistic thought. Her full range of work is covered, including still lifes, portraits, self-portraits, landscapes and interiors. The insightful writing, accompanied by lavish illustrations of Victoria Crowe's work, gives readers access to the paintings as they relate to the different eras of her life.

A Shepherd's Life: Paintings of Jenny Armstrong by Victoria Crowe

Julie Lawson and Mary Taubman

Small and beautifully illustrated hardback book featuring works by Victoria Crowe. A Shepherd's Life centres on Jenny Armstrong, born in 1903 at the farm of Fairliehope, who spent her life working as a shepherd in the Pentland Hills. In a series of remarkable paintings made over twenty years and based on close observation, Victoria Crowe, one of Scotland's foremost painters, pays tribute to the life and work of this exceptional woman.