Explore: Samuel Bough

(1822 - 1878)

Samuel Bough was born in Carlisle; the son of a shoemaker. He had no formal training, but was well acquainted with local artists and was briefly apprenticed to engraver Thomas Allom in London. He worked as an artist in Carlisle until 1845, when he moved to Manchester to take a job as a scene painter. He accepted another scene painting job in Glasgow in 1849 and moved two more times, before settling in Edinburgh, where he became the most popular contemporary Scottish landscapist. In 1875 he became a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy. He travelled widely in England and Scotland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany. Bough suffered a stroke in January 1878, before his death in Morningside, Edinburgh, later that year.