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Rose, David T.

Rose, David T.
Rose, David T.
Rose, David T.
About the artist
Name
Rose, David T.
Biography
David Thomas Rose was born in Wigtownshire and brought up in Nairn. His early career was spent in the family butchery business, but unhappy in this line of work, he began an apprenticeship with an engineering firm in Inverness. His engineering took him to Glasgow where he discovered the Glasgow Boys and took evening classes at Glasgow School of Art.

As a professional civil engineer he was involved in the extension of the Highland rail line from Connel Bridge to Ballachulish and also worked on Valetta harbour in Malta. He took up etching but had to give this up in 1934 after he lost the use of one eye. He travelled in Italy and France sketching street scenes and local people. He had cartoons published in Punch magazine.

David and his family would often spend summer holidays staying with his sister in Edinburgh or other relations in Fife and would spend time sketching and painting, notably the coal miners and pits of Fife and the Dean Village and Leith docks in Edinburgh.

After a period living in Yorkshire, he retired to Brighton, where he was able to concentrate on his painting full-time. In 1937, at the age of 68, David Rose had his first one-man exhibition in Brighton. He continued painting for many years and died in 1964, aged 93. He was outlived by his wife by only a couple of months.


(Sources: The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture by Peter J. M McEwan and Calton Gallery, Edinburgh).
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