David Muirhead Bone [commonly known as known as Muirhead Bone, and as Sir Muirhead Bone] was born in Partick, Glasgow, Scotland on 23 March 1876. He was articled to an unknown architect in Glasgow from 1891 to 1894. During this period he also took evening classes at Glasgow School of Art where he was taught by Archibald Kay (1860-1935) and Francis Newbery (1855-1946).

By 1897 it would seem that Bone had abandoned all thoughts of pursuing a career as an architect, although his training in this discipline was to influence his later work as painter and printmaker. He specialised in architectural subjects, depicting buildings in states of construction, restoration and sometimes destruction. Some of his early commissions came as a result of his friendship with the architect Charles Holden (1875-1960).

In 1916 at the recommendation of William Rothenstein (1872-1945) Bone was appointed the first British Official War Artist by Charles Masterman (1873-1927), head of the British War Propaganda Bureau. Over the next two years he documented Britain's war effort on the home front and abroad in a series of powerful prints and drawings which were widely exhibited.

Following the war, Bone returned mainly to architectural compositions, in which he documented the post-war building boom. During World War Two he served his country again as a full-time salaried artist with the Ministry of Information and as a member of the War Artists' Advisory Committee.

Bone was a member of the New English Art Club the Glasgow Art Club and the Art Workers Guild. He held the first of many solo exhibitions at the Carfax Gallery in London in 1902. During a long career as an artist he also exhibited at the Abbey Gallery, Agnew & Sons Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery, Brook Street Art Gallery, Carfax & Co. Gallery, Colnaghi & Co. Gallery, Chenil Gallery, Connell & Sons Gallery, Fine Art Society, Grosvenor Gallery, International Gallery, New English Art Club, Roual Academy, Redfern Gallery, and Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery in London; the Royal Scottish Academy and Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colours; the Walker art Gallery in Liverpool; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Manchester City Art Gallery; and at galleries in New York. He died in Oxford, England on 21 October 1953.

A biographical file on David Muirhead Bone is available at the Enquiry Desk at the Royal Institute of British Architects Library in London.

_{Text source: Art History Research net (AHR net)}