Charles Oppenheimer (1875-1961)

He was born of a Scottish mother in Manchester in 1875, where his family owned a mosaic manufacturing business. Oppenheimer enrolled at the Manchester School of Art where he studied design. At art school he came under the influence of Walter Crane, a leading teacher, art theorist and member of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Oppenheimer's first involvement with an artist's colony was with the painters who visited Runswick Bay in the North East of England but it was an encounter with E. A. Taylor in Manchester which persuaded him that he should move to Kirkcudbright.

Oppenheimer and his wife Connie settled at 14 High Street, next door to E. A. Hornel at Brought...