HASWELL MILLER, Archibald Elliott 1887-979
Biography
ARCHIBALD ELLIOT HASWELL MILLER, MC, RSW(1887-1979)
“A E” Haswell Miller was born in 1887 and brought up in Glasgow. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art between 1906 and 1909, becoming a probationary Professor, and travelled to study in Paris, Vienna, Munich and Berlin.
During World War I he served with the 7th (Blythswood) Battalion of the Highland Light Infantry in Gallipoli, Palestine and France. He was awarded the Military Cross, attained the rank of Captain and continued to sketch and paint when opportunities arose; many of the pictures in this Exhibition are dated 1914-1917.
Haswell Miller left Glasgow in 1930 on his appointment as Deputy Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, a post he held until 1952, with a break from 1939-45. During World War II he served with the Intelligence Corps, mainly concerned with German and Italian Prisoners of War in Canada.
He specialised in the painting of portraits, especially the military portraits for which he is so well known today. Not only was he a fine figure and uniform artist but he had the ability to give character, movement and accuracy to his subjects. His work was exhibited at the Royal Academy (45), the Royal Scottish Academy (99), Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of British Artists, Glasgow Institute and others. He was elected a Member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours (RSW) in 1924. He was also an illustrator of books.
Haswell Miller was a Member of the Advisory Committee to the Scottish United Services Museum where he was regarded as “the most knowledgeable authority alive on the real subject of military costume and military art”. His best known works were a series of 62 watercolours of Great War groups, mainly of Scottish Regiments and the Brigade of Guards, which were painted for the Imperial War Museum in the 1920s and were the subject of a special Exhibition there in 1971. He was an adviser to the Army Museums Ogilby Trust in the last 25 years of his life. He died in 1979 aged 92.
