About this artwork

Pringle trained as an optician in 1874 and ran his own business as optician and electrician from 1896 to 1923. He used his shop as a studio after hours painting predominantly small canvases, like this painting. From around 1895 he developed an interest in French Impressionism, which influenced this work. This is one of three portraits Pringle made of an elderly man who frequented the Saltmarket area of Glasgow and visited the artist in his shop. The sitter was nicknamed ‘Kruger’ due to his supposed likeness to Paul Kruger, the Boer resistance leader and president of the Transvaal republic in South Africa. The painting is thought to date from 1904 – it is signed and dated but Pringle’s style makes it difficult to read.

Updated before 2020

  • artist:
  • title:
    Study of a Head (or Man with a Drinking Mug)
  • date created:
    About 1904
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    31.00 x 25.80 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Presented by Mr James Meldrum 1948
  • accession number:
    GMA 2028
  • gallery:
  • subject:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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John Quinton Pringle

John Quinton Pringle