JAMES WILLIAM GILES RSA (1801-1870) Biography

Description / Expertise

James William Giles was born in Aberdeen and began his career as a miniature painter. He later turned to painting Scottish landscapes, architecture and wildlife, particularly the deer, fish and cattle of the Highlands. He became a close friend of Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, whom he accompanied on a number of sketching trips.

Giles became renowned for his paintings of castles and angling scenes, though also he had a great sensitivity to atmospheric compositions, and particularly to the effect of storms of which The Blasted Oak is a fine example. Another painting along this theme is Glen Lubock Mar Forest, after a gale (1850).