Artists

William Gibbes McKenzie

W.G. MacKenzie, portrait, landscape and genre painter was born in Belfast and received his early training at the Government School of Design. After four years of study he obtained a National Scholarship and subsequently studied under Sir Edward Poynter, RA (1836-1919) and at Julian's, Paris.
An active member, he exhibited with the Belfast Ramblers' Sketching Club in 1889 and in the same year was elected as one of it's four vice-presidents. The following year he exhibited no fewer than sixteen oils with the BRSC, and a year later, in 1891, showed for the first time at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. He then moved to London and used a studio at 452 Fulham Road. In 1894, 1895 and 1897 he exhibited at the Royal Academy.
He returned to Belfast early in the new century and acquired a studio in the Scottish Provident Buildings, Donegall Square West. In 1906 he again exhibited at the RHA and, with the exception of a few years, continued to display there regularly until 1921. In 1901 he completed what was probably the most difficult task of his painting career - the completion of a large comemoration picture of the proclamation of King Edward V11, from the front of the Old Town Hall, with many Ulster public men in the audience. Ernest E. Taylor (1863-1907) had begun this work but it was uncompleted at the time of his unexpected death.
An active member of the Belfast Art Society he became an associate of the RHA in 1915. His last studio was at 10 Clarence Place.
Described as a lonely bachelor, somewhat of a recluse and a man who loved his art but hated the business side of his profession, he died, aged c.67 in Belfast in October 1924.
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