Identity:

Alfred Edward Emslie, a genre and portrait painter, was the son of John Emslie, an engraver. His brother John Phillipps Emslie was a figure painter. He was married to the miniature painter Rosalie M. Emslie. They had a daughter also called Rosalie M. who became a figure, portrait and landscape painter.

Life:

Emslie, who specialised in genre and portrait painting, turned increasingly to portraiture later in life. He shared with JW an interest in things oriental, and spent three months on a walking tour of Japan. He was a elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1888 and a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1892.

Emslie exhibited in London at the Royal Academy between 1869 and 1897. He also exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Miniature Society, Grosvenor Gallery, Dudley Gallery, New Gallery, Fine Art Society and Agnew and Sons Gallery, as well as at the Royal Society of British Artists, which had elected JW its President in 1886. He also showed his works outside London at the Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours, Leicester Gallery, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery.

Emslie was amongst those proposed invitees to a dinner organised by W. C. Symons to congratulate JW on becoming an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Munich, a dinner which was to be held at the Criterion in Piccadilly on 1 May 1889 (#00631, #05635).

Bibliography:

Art Journal, 1900. p.192; Studio, London, vol. 20, pp. 47-48; vol. 32, p. 153 ff etc; Johnson, J., and Anna Greutzner, Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980.