Alastair K Macdonald was born in Buenos Aires, in the Argentine Republic, on 3 February 1879, the youngest of three children of the eminent doctor, John Macdonald, a surgeon at the British Hospital, and his Argentine-born wife, Sophia (née Cowes). He was baptised at St Andrew's, the Scottish Presbyterian Church in the city, on 6 April 1879.
Having treated patients with yellow fever, Dr Macdonald contracted the infection himself and, for the sake of his health returned to the family estate of Lyndale, on the Isle of Skye. His wife and children settled there with him, but he died on 7 December 1879. They remained on the estate, living with its head, the doctor's father, Alexander Macdonald, a civil engineer from Glasgow.
Alastair Macdonald and his elder brother, Reginald, 'spent their childhood among the grouse and deer of Skye' before being 'sent to school in Edinburgh' (Bradshaw 1940, page 300).
Towards the end of their schooldays, the family fortunes collapsed, and the estate was sold.
Both he and his brother went to Glasgow to study, Reginald training to be a doctor and he being articled to an architect. This only confirmed to him that he wanted to be an artist, and he moved to the city's School of Art, though stayed on his course for only six weeks.
Eager to establish himself, Macdonald showed some drawings to Neil Munro, the editor of both the Glasgow Evening News and the satirical paper, St Mungo, and, as a result, received his first commissions. He then produced theatrical and other illustrations for The Scots Pictorial, an ambitious new weekly that was founded in 1897, when he was just 18.
His double-page image of a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream attracted the attention of George Hawtrey, who was one of its stars, and so impressed he was that he promised Macdonald an introduction to a London editor. As a result, he moved south to join the staff of The Longbow.
Though the magazine lasted for only eight months, from February to October 1898, he was soon producing works for more prestigious periodicals, including the Bystander, the Sketch and the Tatler.
By 1901, Macdonald was living at 13 Disraeli Gardens, Wandsworth, in the company of his mother and his sister. In 1906, he married Glasgow-born Alexandrina (Lexy) Macdonald McQueen in Kingston, Surrey. By 1911, they had settled at The Nutshell, Wilsons Road, Stone Hill, Headley, Hampshire, and were living with their daughter, Margaret (known as Peggy), and Lexy's mother, Jessie.
With the outbreak of war in 1914, Macdonald enlisted in the London Scottish, and served in France, where, after three months, he was wounded and invalided out. Between, 1915 and 1919, he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders.
Just before the war, Macdonald had become acquainted with his distant relative, Alice Helena Watson, an illustrator who shared his agent, Francis & Mills. Seventeen years younger than him, she worked in his studio after the war, and they fell in love, a circumstance that resulted in the break up of his marriage. They married in 1926, and settled at 4 Grenville Place, Kilburn. Together they would have two sons, James and David.
Madonald's career reached its peak during the mid 1920s, when his charming works appeared regularly in leading periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic. He also received commissions to design brochures and menu for the Cunard Line and N Y K Line. These included one for a lavish promotional booklet for Cunard's luxury liner, Acquitania, for which he received the then astonishing sum of £1,000, plus a trip on the liner for both him and his wife.
Sadly, this trip was marred by the behaviour of Macdonald's agent, who absconded with the money. Worse still, the misfortune marked a downturn in Macdonald's career. From the late 1920s, the magazines that had been his mainstay either turned to photography, changed in character or folded. As a result, he relied increasingly on his wife, who remained in great demand as an illustrator of children's books.
During the 1930s, Macdonald and his family lived at 16 St John's Wood Park (a house once occupied by the bestselling Victorian novelist, Mrs Henry Wood). By the outbreak of the Second World War, they had moved to Marylebone, but the house was bombed in 1940, necessitating a further move to 24 Church Row, Hampstead. With the wartime paper shortage, Macdonald received even less work, though he shared some of Alice's commissions. He was also forced to resign from the Savage Club because his account was heavily in arrears. To make ends meet, they let spare rooms to students, whom Alice provided with meals. Their two sons moved to the Chilterns, where they stayed for three years with Alice's sister, Effie.
Macdonald became ill in the late 1940s, but continued to paint until he died, in Wandsworth in June 1948.
Further reading
Percy V Bradshaw, 'Artists of Note, Number 70: A K Macdonald', The Artist, 1940, pages 300-302; Vanessa Whinney, Bibliography.
Alice Helena Watson (1896-1984), Imaginative Book Illustration Society Newsletter, Winter 2000, pages 24-48
Alex Pearl's online post about A K Macdonald, 'Bit of a ladies' man', should also be acknowledged, drawing as it does on information from Mcdonald's grandson, the photographer, John Mac.
