JOHN YOUNG HUNTER
(1874-1955) 

   John Young Hunter was born in Glasgow, Scotland and raised in a privileged household in London. His mother was Isabella Rattray Young, an English heiress and a musician. His father, Colin Hunter, was a Scottish painter of marine life and a member of the London Royal Academy. As a teenager, Young Hunter showed an acute interest in painting and the experiences and influences of his formative years installed a respect for academic values and historical precedent that would dominate his approach to painting through out his career.

   Young Hunter was accepted to the Royal Academy where he studied art for several years.  One of his teachers was John Singer Sargent who became Young Hunter’s mentor. He progressed on to a very successful career as a portrait artist of London’s aristocracy, capturing the inner character of his subjects. In 1912 he made his first trip to the United States, looking for new subject matter to paint and visited the Crow Agency in Montana. He returned in 1914 where he stayed with Charlie Russell whom he had met the year before in London. In 1917 Young Hunter made his way to Taos, where for the next twenty five years he spent his summers painting the peaceful life and the Indians and the winters in New York where he continued painting portrait commissions. By 1943 his house in Taos was completed and he and his family were able to move to Taos full time. He continued to live in Taos until his death in 1955.