HUNTER, John Young

1874 - 1955

John Young Hunter was born at Glasgow on 29 October 1874, son of marine painter Colin Hunter, R.A. (16 July 1841-24 September 1904) and his wife Isabella Rattray née Young (1852-27 April 1940), a distinguished pianist, who married at Govan, Lanark, Scotland on 29 October 1874, Colin Hunter was a close friend of artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). John was educated at Linton House, St Paul's and studied at Clifton College, Bristol and at the Royal Academy Schools under Sargent, winning two silver medals, as well as studying at the University of London. He married at Kensington, London in 1899, Mary Young Hunter, née Towgood, but they divorced about 1920 when John married at Manhattan, New York on 3 January 1921, Eva Renz Schroeer (11 January 1888-21 April 1967) and they had an only daughter. A figure and portrait painter and an Associate of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters 1914, exhibiting at Royal Society of British Artists; Fine Art Society; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Walker Art Gallery; Leicester Galleries; Manchester City Art Gallery; New Gallery and at the Royal Academy from 1895, titles include ‘All in a Garden Fair’, ‘My Ladies Garden’, ‘Rings and Things and Fine Array’ and ‘Forest Lovers’. He also exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, from London 1894 and 1908, Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire in 1902 and from Wickhambrook, Suffolk in 1904 where he had settled at Gifford’s Hall and where their daughter Gabrielle Young Hunter was born in 1905. In 1911, a 35-year-old artist living at 9 Launceston Place, Kensington, London with his 38-year-old wife Mary and their 5-year-old daughter Gabrielle, with a nurse and two indoor servants. On 20 May 1913, Hunter sailed for Montreal, Canada and in 1915 was on the 'Lusitania' for New York, USA, pursuing his fascination with American Indians whom he had seen in Buffalo Bill's ‘Wild West Show’ in London. He again returned to England for a brief period, serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1918, but in 1920 returned to America living at Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. Cutting his connections to the European art world, he settled in Taos and became a part of the colony of artists around Mabel Dodge Luhan (1879-1962). He had a home and studio on the eastern edge of Taos and replaced his painting of society portraits with that of Indian subjects, landscapes, and still life. John Young Hunter died at Taos, New Mexico on 9 August 1955, leaving effects to his widow, Eva Renz Young-Hunter. His work was hung at the Tate Gallery in England and in Paris at the Musee de Luxembourg. He signed his works 'J. YoungHunter' joined.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 14 Melbury Road, Kensington, West London
1895 479 Lochcarron Moor
         731 Al in a Garden Fair
1896180 Mrs Robert English
         684 Glen Sligachan, Skye
         983 The Finding of Moses
from 3 Pembroke Road Studios, Pembroke Gardens, West London
1897 256 The Crofter's Home
1898 195 Edith Mary, daughter of N Macmichael, Esq.
         479 Cleopatra before Caesar
1899 167 Pets
         671 Market Day
         997 My Lady's Garden
         1037 'Hark! hark! the dogs do bark'
from 14 Melbury Road, Kensington, West London
1900 320 'Rings and things and fine array'
         635 John Robertson, Esq.
from 5 Edwardes Square Studios, Kensington, West London
1901 676 Portrait of a Gentleman
         798 'Come lasses and lads'
from 14 Melbury Road, Kensington, West London
1903 553 The Nightingale
from Gifford's Hall, Wickhambrook, Suffolk
1904 429 Filson Young, Esq.
         558 The Bride Elect
1905 449 Celia, Joan and Mac
1906 8 A Song without Words
1907 233 Mrs Young Hunter
         1015 Two Voices

---

Works by This Artist