Born Woodside, Aberdeen, 4 Jan; died Aberdeen 6 Oct. Painter of Scottish and continental landscapes, sporting subjects and portraits. Son of a textile designer. At the age of 13 was painting miniature human and animal figures on snuff boxes. In 1820 he was teaching public drawing classes in Aberdeen. His first known sketch from nature, ‘St Machar’s Cathedral’, dates from this time and was later lithographed and published. He combined teaching with a study of anatomy spending the summers sketching in the central and western highlands. In 1823, having married Clementina Farquharson, he received his first regular training in art, initially in London and then, in 1824, in Paris, where he studied under Regnault. He then travelled to Marseilles and on to Italy, visiting Genoa, Florence, Sienna and Rome. In 1825 was in Naples and Salerno before returning home via the Italian lakes, Switzerland and the Rhine. During the tour he completed over 1,000 watercolour sketches as well as 40 copies of famous works. A selection of these was shown at the Ashmolean Museum in 1970. These early works express an original talent that was never quite recaptured.

‘A sensitivity to atmosphere and to effects of sun and cloud and storm, and the power of rendering his impressions freely and directly, that remind one inevitably of Turner at his best and boldest .. his sky studies are strikingly original and his range of colours, in which blues and browns predominate, shows to special effect in his views of Aricceia and of the slope of Clitumnis reflected in the river’ (Sparrow).

in 1826 Giles returned to Aberdeen, becoming increasingly known to a wide range of local lairds, many of them introduced by his friend Hugh Irvine of Drum. At about this time, he became interested in landscape gardening. In 1830 he advised the 4th Earl of Aberdeen regarding the policies at Haddo House, also helped the Earl of Kintore. In1827 he and Archibald Simpson founded the Aberdeen Artists’ Society. In 1829 he became one of the 24 original full members of the RSA, exhibiting 304 paintings there during his lifetime. In 1852 he was invited to submit perspective drawings for the new Balmoral Castle. Many Royal commissions followed, including landscaping at Balmoral. It is said that Giles twice declined a knighthood. All five children of his first marriage predeceased him and Clementine died in 1866. His second wife was the daughter of the owner of Bridgford Inn where he often fished, and they had two children. His reputation rests mainly on his paintings of deer and the landscape of upper Deeside, especially stalking scenes around Braemar, being himself an excellent stalker. The Earl of Aberdeen commissioned 85 drawings subsequently published in 1936 as Drawings of Aberdeenshire Castles. Among his many designs were the sculpture group ‘Demeter’ that now adorns the roof of the Clydesdale Bank in Castle St, Aberdeen, damask table linen for Queen Victoria, and the deer park at Haddo House. He had an intense interest in history and was a founder member of the Spalding Club, Chairman of the Gas Light Company, and was a keen churchman. At one period in his life became a close friend of Sir Edwin Landseer whom he accompanied on a number of sketching trips. Sometimes given a second Christian name ‘William’ but this is incorrect; it is unclear whether or not the lithographer John West Giles was related. Painted many portraits including at least five self portraits.

Exhibited RA (2), RSA (329), GI (10) and AAS ((2), from 62 Bon Accord St. Represented in NGS (2), British Museum, Aberdeen AG, Castle Fraser (NTS), Haddo House (NTS), Melbourne AG (Australia).

Exhibited RSA 1861 #338 as Maiden Stone from the East, Aberdeenshire.