Hugh Munro

Hugh Munro (Glasgow, 1873 – 1939) was a Scottish painter and art critic. In An Ròsarnach, he was credited as ‘Aodh Mac an Rothaich.’ His parents came from Skye, but he was brought up in Glasgow. He often lectured on Celtic art and Celtic culture.

In May 1923, he delivered a lecture ‘The Celtic Craftsman’ at the Exhibition of Celtic Art and Highland Crafts in Glasgow, a transcript of which was published in An Gàidheal (January – March 1924) and an essay on the same topic, ‘The Celtic Craftsmen’, appeared in Voices from the Hills | Guthan o na Beanntaibh (Glasgow, 1927), ed. John MacDonald.

Munro also illustrated An t-Ogha Mòr (The Great Grandson) by Angus Robertson, one of the two earliest Gaelic novels, extracts from which were originally published in Erskine’s An Sgeulaiche. Munro wrote an introduction to the English edition of An t-Ogha Mòr and contributed four sketches (portraits of Douglas Hyde, Neil Munro, Kenneth MacLeod and Malcolm MacFarlane) for Robertson’s collection of English essays Children of the Fore-World (1933).

As many of these literary works were only available in Gaelic when Munro illustrated them, it seems likely he had a command of Gaelic, which also ties in with his Skye parentage.

Artworks in Erskine’s Magazines

An Ròsarnach

  • ‘Na h-asgaill, tha Leanabh, aig am bheil ball òir ’na Làimh’, Volume I (1917), for ‘Uamh an Òir’ (The Cave of Gold) by Donald Sinclair
  • ‘Sealg nan Damh Donna’ [The Hunting of the Brown Stags], Volume I (1917), for ‘Cuairt anns an Fhrith’ (An Excursion in the Deer Park), by Neil Shaw

Publications in Erskine’s Magazines

The Scottish Review

  • ‘Some Aspects of the Celt in James McNeill Whistler’ [essay, ENG], Issue 84, Volume 39 (Winter 1916)

Resources