Colin Hunter


Colin Hunter was a British Victorian artist, born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1841 and died at Lugar, Melbury Road, London in 1904. The majority of his works are seascapes.
He presented his first work Taking in the nets to the Royal Academy in London 1868 and became an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1884. He exhibited nearly 100 paintings in the Universal Exhibitions in Berlin, Vienna and Philadelphia between 1886 to 1891.
He was predominantly a painter of seascapes and working fisher-folk on the shores of fishing villages up and down the Scottish coast. But he also painted in Ireland, Cornwall and Devon. And traveled to New York where he painted the Niagara Falls.
Although he returned to Scotland to paint nearly every year, he lived in Melbury Road London on the west side of Holland Park from 1876. His house and studio was huge and kept the company with other celebrated artists. Melbury Road and its adjacent streets became an enclave of successful artists in the last quarter of the 19th century - most of whom were Academicians. Hunter was both friends and neighbours of artists such as Lord Leighton, G F Watts and Luke Fildes.

Personal life

He married on 20 November 1873, in Glasgow, Isabella Young, daughter of John H. Young, surgeon-dentist. He had two daughters and two sons. His son, John Young Hunter and his wife, Mary, were also artists.