Macdonald Original Watercolor of Papeari Tahiti

MACDONALD, William Alister (1860-1956).
Papeari, Tahiti, 1932.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed lower left: "W. Alister Macdonald, Papeari, 1931"
9 7/8" x 21" visible, 20" x 30" framed.

MacDonald was a watercolorist especially of landscapes and London scenes. He was born in Scotland, the son of a Scottish free church minister. By the 1880's he was living in London and painted scenes of the city and River Thames. Exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of British Artists. In 1925 he made his first visit to the Pacific Islands. living for a while in Paul Gauguin's house in Tahiti. He had two one-man exhibitions at the Arlington Galleries in Bond Street, organized by his wife, the miniaturist Lucy Winifred Macdonald, in 1935 and 1936; the first showing drawings of the South Seas and the second "Prewar Wanderings - watercolors from home and abroad". Early London scenes were published in 'Watercolours of Old London", 1942. He died at Paopao on the island of Moorea. (British Museum).