Interviews of Jim Henderson

This interview forms part of the Kirkcudbright Artists Remembered project. This project was active during the refurbishment of the Kirkcudbright Town hall into the Kirkcudbright Galleries centre and was undertaken as a partnership between the Kirkcudbright Harbour Cottage Trust and the EERC.

Jim Henderson (aged 69) talks about his granny, the artist Christian J Fergusson (1876-1957). He recalls visits to her home in Maxwelltown, Dumfries which had been designed and built by Christian and her husband and contained many arts and crafts features. Through references to his own memories, family archival material and Christian's paintings, Jim is able to share many details about Christian's life and times. In particular, he talks about her art, working practices, working life and her role as a suffragist.

Christian knew many of the artists of that time, including E A Taylor, Jessie M King, E A Hornel, Robert D Cairns and Anna Hotchkis and enjoyed a great deal of success during her lifetime. Jim talks about his own concern that there is a lack of attention given to women artists and his determination to improve this. Among Christian's contemporaries he notes that many were actively discouraged from showing or selling their work. Christian only began to actively sell her work in the early 1920s, when she sold work to support her family through financial difficulties.

Along with many photographs, letters and articles discussed here, Jim mentions an issue of Scottish Field, from 1934, which contained an article on prominent women artists, including his granny, who were working in Scotland at that time. Jim also talks about his own involvement with the arts. This includes his time as secretary of the Society of Scottish Artists and a book he has written about his granny. He also pays tribute to local Kirkcudbright people who have helpted to promote Kirkcubright and its artistic connections.

He mentions by name John Halliday, Bill Smith, Patrick Bourne and Hugh MacDougall (who were all instrumental in setting up the Kircudbright 2000 exhibition) and David Devereaux. Jim also speaks about ornithological artist, Donald Watson, who lived in Johnstown, and the unrealised plan to turn his home into an ornithological centre. Towards the end of the interview, Jim talks about other artists in the family, including his mother and father. Despite the demands of family life, his mother regularly exhibited at the RSA - often sending him and his brother to the RSA with wet canvases to meet the deadline - and his father was responsible for some of the artworks which decorate the interior of St Cuthbert's church in Edinburgh.