1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brough, Robert

BROUGH, ROBERT (1872–1905), British painter, was born at Invergordon, Ross-shire. He was educated at Aberdeen, and, whilst apprenticed for over six years as lithographer to Messrs Gibb & Co., attended the night classes at the local art school. He then entered the Royal Scottish Academy, and in the first year took the Stuart prize for figure painting, the Chalmers painting bursary, and the Maclaine-Walters medal for composition. After two years in Paris under J.P. Laurens and Benjamin-Constant at Julian’s atelier, he settled in Aberdeen in 1894 as a portrait painter and political cartoonist. A portrait of Mr W. D. Ross first drew attention to his talent in 1896, and in the following year he scored a marked success at the Royal Academy with his “Fantaisie en Folie,” now at the National Gallery of British Art (Tate Gallery). Two of his paintings, “'Twixt Sun and Moon” and “Childhood of St Anne of Brittany,” are at the Venice municipal gallery. Brough’s art is influenced by Raeburn and by modern French training, but it strikes a very personal note. Robert Brough met his death from injuries received in a railway disaster in 1905, his early death being a notable loss to British art.