Rory McEwen

Roderick McEwen (12 March 1932 – 16 October 1982), known as Rory McEwen, was a Scottish artist and musician.

Early life and education

He was the fourth of seven children born to Sir John McEwen, 1st Baronet, and his wife, Brigid Mary Lindley. She was the daughter of Sir Francis Oswald Lindley and great-granddaughter of botanist and illustrator John Lindley, who in 1840 was instrumental in saving the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew from destruction.

McEwen was educated at the family home, Marchmont House in the Scottish Borders, by a French governess named Mademoiselle Philippe, and at Eton College, for The Spectator magazine.

During the early 1960s, Rory and Alex hosted their own live shows to sell-out audiences at three successive Edinburgh Festivals. George Melly, the Clancy Brothers, Dave Swarbrick (later of Fairport Convention), Bob Davenport and the Americans Dick Farina and Carolyn Hester were among their guests.

In 1963 and 1964, McEwen presented and performed on the folk and blues music programme Hullabaloo for commercial ATV television.

Among his closest artist friends were Jim Dine, Brice Marden, Cy Twombly, In painting he forged his own interpretation of international minimalism, creating works in watercolour on velum, of flowers, leaves and vegetables.

His work is in the British Museum, V&A, Tate Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh and MOMA, New York, among other collections. A previously unknown painting by McEwen of Fritillaria gibbosa was purchased by the Royal Horticultural Society in 2018.

Personal life On 15 April 1958, McEwen married debutante Romana von Hofmannsthal (d. 2014), a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College.

They had four children, including Christabel McEwen, who married Edward Lambton, 7th Earl of Durham. They divorced in 1995, and in 2005, she married the musician Jools Holland.

In the summer of 1982, McEwen was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Publications Tulips and Tulipomania, with Wilfred Blunt Old Carnations and Pinks with Oscar C. Moreton (and an introduction by Sacheverell Sitwell) The Auricula, Its History and Character with Oscar C. Moreton From the Air with Kenneth Koch Rory McEwen The Colours of Reality edited by Martyn Rix

Exhibitions 1962: Durlacher Bros., New York 1964: Andre Weill Gallery, Paris The Hunt Botanical Library, Pittsburgh National Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh 1965: Durlacher Bros., New York 1966: Douglas and Foulis, Edinburgh 1967: Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh Byron Gallery, New York 1968: Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf 1969: Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh 1970: Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh 1971: Scottish Arts Council 1972: Redfern Gallery, London Sonnabend Gallery, New York 1974: Redfern Gallery, London Tooth's Gallery, London 1975: Oxford Gallery, Oxford 1976: Redfern Gallery, London 1977: Oxford Gallery, Oxford 1978: ICA, London 1979: Taranman Gallery, London 1980: Nihonbash Gallery, Tokyo 1981: Redfern Gallery, London Fischer Fine Art. London 1982: Steampfli Gallery, New York Wave Hill, New York 1983: Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh 1984: Museum of Modern Art, New York 1988: Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh, and the Serpentine Gallery, London 2013: Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens, London 2024: Gibbes Museum of Art - Charleston, South Carolina 2024: Davis Museum - Boston, Massachusetts 2025: Society of the Four Arts - Palm Beach 2025: Driehaus Museum, Chicago 2025: Nature's Song, Garden Museum, London

Discography Rory and Alex McEwen, Great Scottish Ballads, Folkways Records, 10" LP, 1956 Rory and Alex McEwen, Scottish Songs and Ballads, Folkways Records, 10" LP, 1957 Rory and Alex McEwen and Isla Cameron, Folksong Jubilee, His Master's Voice, 12" LP, 1958 Rory McEwen, Edinburgh - Its Sounds And People, His Master's Voice, 7" EP, 1959 Rory And Alex McEwen, Hootenannie 1, Waverly Records, 7" EP, 1963 Rory And Alex McEwen, Hootenannie 2, Waverly Records, 7" EP, 1963 Rory And Alex McEwen, Hootenannie 3, Waverly Records, 7" EP, 1963 Rory And Alex McEwen, Hootenannie 4, Waverly Records, 7" EP, 1963 Rory and Alex McEwen, and Carolyne and Dick Farina, Four For Fun, Waverly Records, 7" EP, 1963 Rory McEwen and Jim Dine, Songs, Poems and Prints, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12" LP, 1969