User:AnnaCloney/sandbox
Early Life and Family
James Humbert Craig was born at 16 Brougham Street Belfast, on the 12th of July 1877.[1] Soon after his birth his family moved to Ballyholme Road, Bangor County Down. Here they built a house and named it ‘Craigwelyn’ after the last name of the family.[2] Craig was the son of Alexander Craig, a tea merchant working on tea imports in Belfast.[3] His mother, Marie Sabine Metezzen, was a Swiss native coming from a creative family in Lausanne.[4] This is where Craig got his flair for painting, which he began by using the plywood from the sides of tea chests from his father.[3] Metezzen came to Ireland with a school friend from Switzerland who travelled to Belfast to visit his family working in the Belfast ship building industry.[2] She married Alexander Craig in 1874 in Castlereagh Presbyterian Church, Down.[4] James Craig grew up in a wealthy house where he was privately tutored at home in ‘Craigwelyn’.[1] Craig was a fond lover of sports, his favourite being anything to do with the sea. This fascination was carried into his love of art with him later taking a great amount of time painting the Northern Coast of Ireland. Craig enjoyed sailing, swimming and angling with his father, while being a strong player of rugby and football.[1][5] He went on to be one of the founders of the Bangor Rugby Club, hoping to inspire many more young boys to take up the sport.[2] The family later moved to 160 Groomsport Road, to which they named the house ‘Craiglea’, in reference once again to the family name, this house was later demolished in 1986.[2] Craig was a very talented boy, taking a fancy with many instruments and playing with the Belfast Philharmonic Orchestra on occasion.[2] As the only son Craig began apprenticing his father at the age of fourteen, he stayed only for a couple of years before enrolling in the Belfast School of Art to continue his love of painting.[2][5] However, Craig left the college after a term and emigrated to America, he stayed for a short time working small jobs including painting the Brooklyn Bridge while under construction.[4] After witnessing a suicide from the bridge, Craig returned home and began to paint the landscapes he was much more comfortable with - mostly the coast of Ireland.[4]
- ^ a b c Minch, Rebecca (2009-10-01), "Craig, James Humbert", Dictionary of Irish Biography, Royal Irish Academy, doi:10.3318/dib.002145.v1, retrieved 2022-11-23
- ^ a b c d e f "Mayor launches Craig Art Exhibition at North Down Museum". Retrieved 2022-11-23.
- ^ a b "James Humbert Craig". Irish Independent. 14 February 1998. p. 26.
- ^ a b c d Snoddy, Theo (1922). Dictionary of Irish Artists: 20 Century (in Eng) (1 ed.). Dublin: Merlin. p. 118. ISBN 9781903582176.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ a b Johnston, Neil (19 December 2000). "Looking Back Over Changing Landscape". Belfast Telegraph. p. 17.