{"id":3600,"date":"2022-10-06T10:56:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T09:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk\/dundeeuniculture\/?p=3600"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:46:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:46:45","slug":"lives-through-a-sketchbook-alex-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/lives-through-a-sketchbook-alex-low\/","title":{"rendered":"Lives through a sketchbook: Alex Low"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archive Services tell us more about the fascinating collection of photojournalist Alexander Low who recently gifted the Archive his own collection of papers and photographs as well as material created by his ancestors. His Low family papers, as well as those of seven other families related to the Lows, comprise legal documents, financial papers and photographs. We\u2019ve already glimpsed how letters across the collection can tell the story of each individual, so now we turn to their artworks.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The oldest in the collection is a<\/span> small, annotated water colour of a battle at Naples, given to James Chabot, signed and dated 1810, with a description of the battle. <\/span>Chabot traded as a Merchant in Malta between 1804 -1815\u202fthen moved briefly to London before settling in Mexico where his daughter married into the Low family.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Watercolour<\/p>\n

The more usual kind of artwork <\/span>can be found in <\/span>Eliza <\/span>Hally\u2019s<\/span> scrapbook album which apart from <\/span>some printed views<\/span>, also contains handwritten <\/span>verses<\/span>,<\/span> and<\/span> <\/span>il<\/span>lustrations of flora and fauna<\/span> mostly done while she was living in <\/span>Madeira<\/span> with her husband in the <\/span>early 19<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span> century.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Watercolour
Watercolour c 1837<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many members across the families used sketches and waterco<\/span>lours to record episodes in their lives<\/span>, <\/span>particularly <\/span>members of the Low family<\/span>. <\/span>Before his death in 1914, <\/span>Gerald Low <\/span>filled several sketch books<\/span>. His talent stretched from <\/span>scenic watercolour sketches to cartoons<\/span>, <\/span>recording scenes around his home and while on holiday. He <\/span>was evidently drawing from an early age<\/span> and <\/span>his cartoon <\/span>suggests<\/span> Gerald had<\/span> a sense of humour<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cartoon\"<\/p>\n

His mother, Annie, also had talent<\/span> and the collection contains several sketchbooks and bundles <\/span>of watercolours<\/span>, most from before her marriage<\/span>. <\/span>Judging from <\/span>the range of scenes, <\/span>Annie seems to have travelled quite widely<\/span> across the UK. Her <\/span>artworks also refer to her <\/span>family <\/span>roots<\/span>, including a sketch of<\/span> Glenfarne<\/span> Hall <\/span>which was the residen<\/span>ce of <\/span>Sir Edward Harland<\/span>, founder of Harland & Wolff<\/span>, Annie\u2019s uncle<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Watercolour\"
Seaview Kintyre, 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her husband, AG Low, also used his <\/span>pencil to record his roots. <\/span>AG travelled extensively<\/span> all of<\/span> his life<\/span>, both for business and pleasure, his sketchbooks record<\/span>ing <\/span><\/span>scenes and details, landscapes, seascapes and buildings <\/span>from<\/span> across the UK, Europe, North Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas<\/span><\/span>. AG had been born in Mexico where his father <\/span>was a cotton manufacturer<\/span>, and in 1928<\/span>, aged 75, he returned and sketch<\/span>ed<\/span> the factory at <\/span><\/span>La <\/span>Hormiga<\/span>, recording the genesis of the Low family for<\/span>t<\/span>une<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\"Sketch<\/p>\n

It\u2019s <\/span>perhaps <\/span>not surprising that these sketchbooks ha<\/span>d<\/span> been kept by the family<\/span>. <\/span>Travelling <\/span>with<\/span> the <\/span>relatively slow <\/span>and bulky <\/span>technologies of <\/span>19<\/span><\/span>th<\/span><\/span> century<\/span> cameras<\/span> would <\/span>have been less attractive than carrying <\/span>a sketchbook and pencil<\/span> t<\/span>o record and then be able to <\/span>reminisce about<\/span> places visited. <\/span>There\u2019s also evident appreciation <\/span>of <\/span>the scenes the Low\u2019s witnessed <\/span>which they fortunately <\/span>had the talent <\/span>to capture.<\/span> However, <\/span>despite <\/span>AG Low\u2019s <\/span>adherence to the sketchbook right up to his death, he did embrace <\/span>the camera<\/span> and was<\/span> an enthusiastic amateur <\/span>photographer, <\/span>a<\/span>n interest <\/span>developed into a career by his grandson, <\/span>photo-journalist <\/span>Alex L<\/span>ow<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span> The final blog post in this series will explore his photography.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he full description of <\/span>the collection is online <\/span><\/span>Alex Low collection<\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archive Services tell us more about the fascinating collection of photojournalist Alexander Low who recently gifted the Archive his own collection of papers and photographs as well as material created by his ancestors. His Low family papers, as well as those of seven other families related to the Lows, comprise legal documents, financial papers and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":550,"featured_media":3601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-art","category-history"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6216,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions\/6216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}