John Baillie was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1868; little is known of his formation as an artist, but he exhibited with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts before moving to London in 1896 in order to further his artistic career. From 1901, alongside his own painting, he embarked upon a successful career as an art dealer, opening the Baillie Gallery, which represented a number of both well known and more minor artists, and which occupied various addresses in London. His own exhibitions were well received by the press; he eventually returned to New Zealand in 1916.
Artist, art dealer and publisher, John Baillie was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1868. His father ran a book and stationery business on Cuba Street, where Baillie later worked in partnership with his brother Herbert. Little is know of his formation as an artist. However, between 1891 and 1921 he exhibited with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and, in 1892 and 1893, served as secretary of the Wellington Art Club, founded by well-known Scottish expatriate artist, James Nairn.
In order to further his career, Baillie sailed for England in 1896, where he quickly mixed with London's artistic circles. A London correspondent of the Christchurch Pressnoted: ‘Mr John Baillie called on me the other day, and I was glad to find that he seemed in excellent spirits as to his artistic prospects in England. His pictures have been most favourably criticised by some of the leading English artists, to whom he has submitted them […] with his powers a brilliant future ought to be assured' (Mackle 2017, p. 64). After a short visit to Wellington to dissolve the partnership with his brother, Baillie returned to London, where in 1899 he set up his studio at 219 King’s Road, Chelsea. Sensing the commercial potential of the lively colonial ex-pat community formed by artists from across the British Empire, from 1901 he mainly worked as an art dealer. He initially opened the Baillie Gallery off Notting Hill Gate, and subsequently operated from several locations, including 1 Princes Terrace (1902–05), in partnership with Albert E. Bonner; 54 Baker Street (1905–08, inaugurated with the first posthumous exhibition of Simeon Solomon’s work), in partnership with W.D. Gardiner, and 13 Bruton Street (1908–14). Baillie published catalogues for his exhibitions, often featuring minor or neglected artists, as well as exotic and unusual media and techniques, often non-British in origin. Among Baillie's shows were lithographs by Charles Shannon, costume designs by contemporary British artists, Japanese colour prints, Tibetan art and artistic jewellery; Walter Sickert, Glyn Philpot, and Paul Emile Pissarro also exhibited. In 1905 Robert Bevan had his first solo show which the critics vilified for his use of ‘violent’ and ‘garish’ colour (see Tate website). Among New Zealand artists who exhibited were Frances Hodgkins, Margaret Stoddart, and Grace Joel. Baillie also showed the work of Anne Estelle Rice, Samuel Peploe and John Duncan Fergusson, who represented the core of the Scottish post-Impressionist movement. From 1905, Baillie organised annual exhibitions of flower paintings by both established and lesser-known artists. Baillie’s exhibitions were often praised in the press. The Manchester Guardian commented that ‘Mr. John Baillie succeeds in giving to each of his shows […] some degree of novelty and interest’ (The Manchester Guardian 1903, p. 6), The Art Journal commented that he arranged ‘several genuinely welcome exhibitions during the past year’ (The Art Journal 1904, p. 298) and the Times, after the gallery's relocation to Bruton Street, observed that ‘Mr. Baillie has long shown himself to be a man of taste and a discoverer of artistic talent. It may be hoped that his new gallery will prove a real addition to the places in which work of merit may always be found' (The Times 1908, p. 4). In 1912 Baillie presented a joint exhibition by Jewish émigré artists, the late Henry Ospovat and John Henry Amshewitz (the latter, represented in the Ben Uri Collection) which was reviewed by 'Whitechapel Boy', painter and poet, Isaac Rosenberg, for the Jewish Chronicle. Previously, in 1909, the British Museum purchased four of Ospovat's works from Baillie.
Maintaining his own artistic career in parallel with dealing, Baillie exhibited a small collection of his watercolours in 1903, which was well received by the press: The Atheneum commented that ‘his sketches show considerable feeling and taste in colour. The Fish Pond, The Vision and Dusk are among the most completely successful’ (The Athenaeum 1903, p. 697). The Evening Post praised his ‘poetical vein’, although, as Tony Mackle of Museum of New Zealand noted, the reviewer was ‘patronising’ when noting that ‘The remarkable thing about Mr Baillie’s work is that the artist received his entire training in New Zealand […] His technical capacity is in advance of that of any other colonial painter with whose work we are acquainted’ (Mackle 2017, p. 64). Baillie further enhanced his reputation by publishing the art and literary magazine The Venture between 1903 and 1905; contributors included Frank Brangwyn, James McNeil Whistler, Arthur Rackham, John Singer Sargent, and James Joyce, while W. Somerset Maugham was briefly editor.
Due to ill health, Baillie returned to Wellington, New Zealand in 1916. Besides painting, he focused on photography, holding an exhibition at McGregor Wright’s Gallery, featuring New Zealand landscapes, Venice, Pompei, and British gardens. Baillie also helped shape the national collections in his homeland. He was later appointed as librarian at the Public Library in New Plymouth, where he played an active role in the cultural life of the town. John Baillie died in Wellington, New Zealand in 1926. His own art is not represented in UK public institutions, though the Ospovat drawings remain in the collection of the British Museum, London.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [John Baillie]
Publications related to [John Baillie] in the Ben Uri Library