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For John Henry, painting and storytelling seemed to go hand in hand. The setting he returned to over and over again was Kellie. The characters within his frames were his friends, neighbours and family members. The plots were told through everyday moments: the delight of a birthday party, the quiet of a sleeping nephew, the serenity of three women reading and sewing together.

One woman who became a pivotal character for John Henry was Joanna Herbert. Employed by his sister Alice as a nanny in 1880, she looked after all six of his nieces and nephews and remained part of the family for almost 40 years. On multiple occasions, she accompanied Alice and her children to Scotland from Guyana, where she was born. Her final years were spent in Edinburgh. Joanna is the woman at the centre of Lullabye, the first painting John Henry sent to the Salon in Paris. She also features in Grandmother’s Birthday, the first painting by a Scottish artist to be bought by the French Government. The purchase almost earned John Henry the Legion d’Honneur, the highest accolade for a painter at the time. He was unable to accept the medal due to various British regulations around foreign honours in the arts.

Such a grievance, combined with his disappointment at not being elected to the Royal Academy (RA) in London, is likely to have contributed to the self-doubt of his later years. Even so, he never stopped valuing the beauty he saw before him, never stopped striving to tell the stories of the people he loved, never stopped reflecting the light of the place he called home.

The audioguide for Reflections: The light and life of John Henry Lorimer is presented and produced by the exhibition co-curator, Charlotte Lorimer. It includes the panels of text displayed in the exhibition, as well as dramatised readings of family letters and memoirs, performed by Clive Russell, George Lorimer, Ed Wade, Natasha Jobst and Sarah Haynes. The audioguide also includes twelve original poems by Christine de Luca. The exhibition runs from 6th November 2021 to 20th March 2022 at The City Art Centre in Edinburgh.