James Humbert Craig

The Kerry Coast (oil on canvas, 1928, now in the Ulster Museum Craig was born in Belfast to Alexander Craig, a tea merchant, and a Swiss mother, Marie Metzenen, from a family with a painting tradition. He was raised in County Down and maintained a studio at Cushendun, County Antrim. Craig abandoned a career in business, briefly attended the Belfast School of Art, and became a mostly self-taught painter of landscapes. Among his favorite panoramas were County Donegal, Connemara and the Glens of Antrim. Craig was elected to the Royal Ulster Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1928. He also exhibited at the Fine Art Society in London.

Early life and family Painting by Craig entitled, "A View of Port na Blagh, Sheephaven Bay, County Donegal" James Humbert Craig was born at 16 Brougham Street Belfast, on 12 July 1877. Soon after his birth his family moved to Ballyholme Road, Bangor County Down. Here they built a house and named it ‘Craigwelyn’ after the last name of the family. Craig was the son of Alexander Craig, a tea merchant working on tea imports in Belfast. His mother, Marie Sabine Metezzen, was a Swiss native coming from a creative family in Lausanne. This is where Craig got his flair for painting, which he began by using the plywood from the sides of tea chests from his father. He went on to be one of the founders of the Bangor Rugby Club, hoping to inspire many more young boys to take up the sport. The family later moved to 160 Groomsport Road, to which they named the house ‘Craiglea’, in reference once again to the family name, this house was later demolished in 1986. Craig was a very talented boy, taking a fancy with many instruments and playing with the Belfast Philharmonic Orchestra on occasion. Craig was a member of many different societies and academies in his career. In 1920, he joined the Belfast Art Society until 1930 when it became the Ulster Academy of Arts, of which he also became an elected member. In 1921 he also became a member of another society in Ulster, called the Ulster Society of Painters. Craig began to get much recognition nationally and even got the opportunity to represent his country in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics in the art competition. Craig loved to paint outdoors, as it is where he felt most inspired. He once said that “if painters only knew the charm of the Glens they would come from all parts of the world to depict them on canvas". Craig worked right up to his death in 1944, when he travelled to County Donegal to paint until he became ill and had to travel back to the Glens. Craig as an artist steered away from adapting the foreign modernism ideas that were widely spread. Instead, he decided to further develop his desire for Irish subject matter.