Melville, though comparatively little known during his lifetime, was one of the most powerful influences in the contemporary art of his day, especially in his broad decorative treatment with watercolour, which influenced the Glasgow Boys. 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 colour and his Venetian scenes, but he also painted several striking portraits in oils and a powerful composition of The Return from the Crucifixion which remained unfinished at his death in 1904. The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of his watercolours, The Little Bull-Fig-ht Bravo, Toro! and others, like An Oriental Goatherd in the Weimar Museum, are in many museums, especially in Scotland. Many of his pictures remain with private collectors. Melville has a memorial stone on Brookwood Heath, Surrey. A comprehensive memorial exhibition of Melville's works was held at the Royal Institute Galleries in London in 1906. Notes References External links Lachlan Goudie on Arthur Melville Arthur Melville: A collection of 136 works Arthur Melville online (ArtCyclopedia) Biography of & artworks by Arthur Melville at the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries, Scotland virtual representation of the Gracefield Arts Centre's Permanent Collection at exploreart.co.uk Passion and intrigue of an Eastern love affair - Arthur Melville's watercolours (The Independent, 13 August 1996) Paintings by Melville (Bridgeman Art Library) The Sapphire Sea (watercolour, 1892 - The Scottish Gallery) After the Play (Chalk - Christie's) 1858 births 1904 deaths 19th-century Scottish male artists 20th-century Scottish male artists 19th-century Scottish painters 20th-century Scottish painters People from East Lothian Royal Society of Portrait Painters Scottish male painters Scottish orientalists Scottish watercolourists