Robert MacGregor (1848–1922)

Robert MacGregor was a Scottish painter renowned for his pioneering depictions of rural labor and everyday working life. Born in Bradford to a Dunfermline businessman, he spent his early years between England and Scotland before settling in Edinburgh, where he studied at the RSA Life Schools and first exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1873. Elected an Associate in 1882 and a full member in 1889, MacGregor went on to achieve wide recognition, with works now held in major public collections including the National Gallery of Scotland and museums in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Paisley.

MacGregor introduced a genre of rural work scenes to Britain that had previously flourished in France through artists such as Gustave Courbet and Jules Bastien-Lepage. While deeply rooted in Scottish subject matter, his style reflects strong continental influence, particularly in his restrained palette, use of grey tonality, and compositional emphasis on the physical presence of peasant figures. Notable works such as The Knife-Grinder (1878) and Gathering Stones (1879) exemplify this synthesis of French realism and Scottish tradition, earning MacGregor a distinctive place in late 19th-century British painting.