Mary Stewart Gibson

Mary Stewart Gibson (21 February 1904 – 5 March 1989) was a Scottish artist, who spent most of her life living and working in Paris.

Early life and education Mary Gibson was born in Longridge, West Lothian, Scotland in 1904, the second daughter of Reverend John Gibson, minister of the local United Free church, and Mrs. Ellie Brown Gibson. She was a pupil at Bathgate Academy after the death of her father, Mary Gibson fulfilled a long-standing ambition She was a student at several studios, in particular that of Emile Renard, In a 1932 article in the journal of her old school, Mary mentions a "colony of bungalow studios ... with creeping vines, fruit trees and a profusion of greenery and flowers." Artists of multiple nationalities work there, mostly "men of much interest." She feels at home on the left bank of the Seine with its writers, artists and intellectuals and crossing the river is like going "into town."

Gibson later moved to a studio opposite the Santé prison in the adjacent 14th arrondissement. In 1940, following the occupation of Paris, she was arrested as an enemy alien by a French gendarme, "whom she had known for seven years and who promised her tearfully that this outrage ... would be revenged." the Tartan Pimpernel, who was minister there both before and after the war.

Mary Gibson's art

Gibson was "a prominent member of the second generation of Scottish colourists." As early as 1926, she had a painting accepted for that year's Salon in Paris, the city's main annual art exhibition. It was a portrait of an old peasant woman. and at the D&F Gallery in Edinburgh in 1966 and 1970. Mary travelled extensively, finding subject matter in Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Egypt, Italy, and many parts of France; island settings were a special favourite of hers. The poet and artist Sydney Goodsir Smith wrote in 1963 that her street scenes were done "with affection but without sentimentality", and that she "sets down exactly what she sees before her". A memorial service was held for her at the Scots Kirk in the same city on 6 April 1989.