Item #238445 Portrait photograph of author Ian Maclaren, three-quarters length seated, in jacket with top hat in hand. Goldensky, lias.

Portrait photograph of author Ian Maclaren, three-quarters length seated, in jacket with top hat in hand.

Philadelphia: C. Houstin Goudiss, 1907.

Price: $500.00


About the item

Gelatin silver print, triple mounted, with C. Houston Goudis blindstamp and Goldensky blindstamp on mount, INSCRIBED by Maclaren beneath image ("Yours Faithfully, Ian MacLaren"). Image: 6 1/4 x 4 1/2 in. Fine, with some toning and edgewear to mount.

Item #238445

Maclaren was the pseudonym of Presbyterian pastor and Scotsman John Watson (1850-1907). He earned popular (but decidedly not critical) success in 1894 with BESIDE THE BONNIE BRIER BUSH - "The combination of sentimentality, humour, and religion in a rural Scottish setting proved a successful formula both in Britain and North America and Watson achieved instant fame" (ODNB).
Maclaren also enjoyed great popularity in the United States as a lecturer-this photograph, by the prominent Philadelphia portrait photographer Elias Goldensky, captures Maclaren during his third and final American lecture tour. Often in ill-health, he would suffer a fatal case of tonsilitis during the tour and die unexpectedly in Iowa.