E A Taylor was a painter, printmaker, stained glass and furniture designer, born in Greenock, Renfrewshire. In the early 1900s, Taylor worked for the Glasgow cabinet makers Wylie and Lochhead. In 1908 he married the artist Jessie M King and moved to Manchester where he managed and designed for George Wragge Ltd., notably stained glass, then for about three years prior to World War I, the Taylors lived in Paris. They set up a school, Atelier Shealing, then when they had re-settled in Kirkcudbright, they ran a summer school on the Isle of Arran. Modern French art, the Scottish Colourists and the Ballets Russes were all influences on Ernest Archibald Taylor’s art. He showed extensively at the Royal Scottish Academy, also at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, and Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, as well as abroad.
