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Arthur Melville (1858-1904) was a United
Kingdom|British painter.

He was born in Scotland, in a village of
Haddingtonshire. He took up painting at an early
age, and though he attended a night-school and
studied afterwards in Paris and Greece, he learnt
more fron practice and personal observation than
from school training. The remarkable color-sense
which is so notable a feature of his work, whether
in oils or in watercolor, came to him during his
travels in Persia, Egypt and India.

Melville, though comparatively little known during
his lifetime, was one of the most powerful
influences in contemporary art, especially in his
broad decorative treatment with water-color.
Though his vivid impressions of color and movement
are apparently recorded with feverish haste, they
are the result of careful deliberation and
selection. He was at his best in his watercolors
of Eastern life and color and his Venetian scenes,
but he also painted several striking portraits in
oils and a powerful colossal composition of The
Return from the Crucifixion which remained
unfinished at his death in 1904. At the Victoria
and Albert Museum is one of his water-colors, The
Little Bull-Fight Bravo, Toro! and another, An
Oriental Goatherd, is in the Weimar Museum. But
the majority of his pictures have been absorbed by
private collectors.

A comprehensive memorial exhibition of Melville's
works was held at the Royal Institute Galleries in
London in 1906.

1911