GEORGE  BULLOUGH
Commissioned construction of Kinloch Castle
Oil Paintings at Risk.

Photographs, research and text © George W. Randall, co-founder in July 1996 and former Vice Chairman Kinloch Castle Friends' Association.

Two portraits of George Bullough. 

Left: as a boy by St. George Hare. Right: as Sir George, by Hugh Goldwin Rivière. 

BACKGROUND INTRODUCTION:

Oil portrait of George Bullough while a pupil at Harrow School circa. 1882.

The original plain weave canvas, 26 x 31 inches (64 x 76 cms.),
is displayed in an ornate gilt frame in the Dining Room at Kinloch Castle.
Comparison with a dated 1886 Harrow School class photograph of George,
then aged 16, strongly suggests, allowing for artistic license,
his age in this portrait to be 12 years.

The painting depicts George against a heavily wooded background,
his right hand resting on the neck of his dog which is staring adoringly at its master.
Against his thigh he holds a red book in his left hand, his index finger between the pages.

The 1996 Inventory by Phillips of Edinburgh records the artist as “Hare”, 
(St. George Hare (1857 - 1933), the same artist who painted the portrait of John Bullough,
George’s father. Close examination reveals a ghostly HARE signature in
upper case letters in the top left corner of the work.

“Large losses of mouldings and gilding, particularly the lower left and right corners.”

Assessed in 1996 as stable overall, the lower left corner paint layer suffered “small losses.”

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George Bullough was born on 28 February 1870, and baptised at Christ Church, Accrington.

The eldest son of John Bullough and his first wife, Swiss born Bertha Schmidlin.

George had a sister, named after their mother, born on 8 April 1872,

who married Charles Young on 23 April 1891 at All Saints, Eastbourne, Sussex.

George also had a full brother, Edward, born at Thun, Switzerland, on 28 March 1880.

For reasons unsubstantiated, (his cruelty and her adultery being top of the list), 

John Bullough divorced his first wife and married eighteen year old Alexandra Marian Mackenzie 

of Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, on 8 September 1884 at Meggernie Castle, he was forty-four.

They had two children, John, popularly known as “Ion” born 13 February, 1886 

and Gladys born 24 November 1888.

The library at Kinloch Castle contains a number of George’s Harrow school text books, the pages of which bear testimony to his “doodlings” while supposedly studying Greek, Latin or in this case; mathematics.

Like many schoolboys he was extremely keen on practicing his signature as the cover of his 1885 copy of The Enunciations and Corollaries of Euclid’s Elements shows.

 

Greek mathematician Euclid’s work remains one of the most influential in the history of  geometry; it was required school reading well into the early 1900’s. George Bullough was a captain in the Scottish Horse Imperial Yeomanry. 

From 1914-15 he was in the Remount Department procuring horses for the army  with the rank of Major and Superintendent . 

Three days short of his twenty-first birthday George's father died, leaving a personal estate of  “£1,094,523:10:1d. in the United Kingdom.”

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The Hugh Goldwin Rivière portrait of Sir George Bullough, Baronet, 
is displayed on the Great Hall Gallery at Kinloch Castle, 
directly above that of Lady Bullough by the same artist on the ground floor, 
each being a 40^th birthday gift to the other.

Sir George is portrayed standing in morning dress: kilt, jacket, white shirt with turned down collar, single colour tie and leather sporran. A decorative pin in the apron of his kilt. 
He is resting back against a large carved coffer (chest) cap by his right hand and holding 
a shepherd’s crook against his left side. 
Long stockings, known as kilt hose, folded down at the top  supported by garter flashes, 
his sgian-dubh (a sheaved knife), partly concealed on his right leg. 
Gillie Brogues complete Sir George’s Highland dress.

The artist, Hugh Goldwin Rivière (1869–1956) was a noted British portraitist of French Hugenot descent. One of seven children, his father Briton Rivière was a member of the Royal Academy and his mother, Mary Alice Rivière, exhibited at the Academy.

The 60 x 92 inches (146 x 225 cms.) oil on canvas is displayed in an ornate gilded frame from which Sir George gazes down from the gallery to the Great Hall at Kinloch Castle.

Professionally assessed by an art conservator in March 1996 the heavy weight, plain weave canvas was deemed in good condition. No craquelure was noted, but “blooming” - the dull opaque effect caused on varnish surfaces by damp conditions - was widespread in dark areas.” 

Tension was found to be “quite slack” with “bulges 
at the bottom where wedges have dropped.” 

The paint layer was stable and the surface 

appearance generally good,

other than where bloom had developed.

The frame was found to be “structurally sound 

and in good condition.”

Recommendations at the time, all of which could have been carried out on site, included: adjustment of canvas tension, treatment of deformations along bottom, clean and treat bloomed areas, retouch losses of exposed plaster and re-varnish with matt varnish.

From Harrow School Photograph.

George Bullough (undated)

Displayed in the Library.  Very badly water damaged.

Frame by: A. Whitcombe & Co., Ltd., 12 & 13 Colonnade, Cheltenham.

Print Sellers, Picture Frame Makers, Gilders & Restorers.

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MATERIAL ADDED  2 DECEMBER 2024.