Richard Gilmore Douglas
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| John Wesley at Prayer, by Richard Gilmore Douglas |
Asbury at His
Devotions, by Richard Gilmore Douglas |
Richard Gilmore Douglas of Thirsk, England ranks as the
foremost living painter of John Wesley, the Wesley family, and
America's most famous bishop, Francis Asbury. Mr. Douglas's
formal academic training includes a Diploma in Theology from
Rhodes University, where his studies included Greek and Hebrew,
and a B.Ed. degree from Durham University.
As a young
Sunday School teacher, while pondering Wesley's sermon "The
Almost Christian" Mr. Douglas trusted Jesus Christ as his
Saviour. When he was twenty years old, Douglas left his native
England to begin missionary work in Africa. Traveling on the
hot, dusty trains of Namibia, he began reading John Wesley's
sermons. He soon became a Methodist local preacher. While in
Namibia, he began to draw John Wesley and scenes drawn from his
writings. Routinely, in the cool of the evenings he worked at
the craft of drawing. This pastime became more than a hobby. It
developed into a compelling mission that grew with the years.
After serving thirteen years as a missionary in southwest
Africa, health problems forced Mr. Douglas to return to England.
He assumed a post at Eskdale School in Whitby, England and spent
many years there teaching religion and art, while he continued
to draw and paint. On his retirement, he became a full-time
artist, specializing in portraits and paintings of John and
Charles Wesley and Francis Asbury. Soon, Mr. Douglas gained wide
recognition as the leading authority on the eighteenth-century
Methodist leaders.
Mr. Douglas supplied portraits for the
main centers of Methodism in England. The New Room at Bristol,
the City Road Methodist Museum at London, and the Wesley family
rectory at Epworth have displayed his paintings. Thousands who
have come to these sites admire his work and photograph his
paintings. In 1995, he painted a set of portraits and "Asbury in
action" scenes for the Francis Asbury celebrations at
Methodism's Central Hall in London. He also painted a set of
Wesley paintings for Virginia Wesleyan College in America.
England's BBC has featured his art on television programs.
In the 1990s, Richard Douglas came to know about Asbury
Theological Seminary through one of its faculty members. In 2004
Mr. Douglas decided to place most of his life's work as a
portrait painter of the Wesleys and Francis Asbury at the
seminary bearing Asbury's name. This generous gift graces Asbury
Theological Seminary with more museum-quality, original
portraits of John and Charles Wesley and Francis Asbury than any
other theological seminary in the world. As well, Dr. Douglas
placed many scores of drawings, in black and white and in color,
at Asbury Seminary.
Richard Douglas invested years of
careful research into eighteenth-century customs and dress. Mr.
Douglas has acquired extensive knowledge of the origin and
growth of early Methodism, and he has studied all relevant
portraits, engravings, and statuary of the Wesleys and Francis
Asbury. This preparation combines with his recognized artistic
gifts to qualify him as the premier living portrait painter of
early Methodist figures.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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