Oskar Kokoschka and "Doris and the Cat"

Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980), was one of the greatest figurative painters of the twentieth century.

During the Second World War Oskar Kokoschka and his wife Olda were emigrants in Britain. From 1941 to 1945 the couple spent several weeks each summer in the Machars of Galloway as guests of the wealthy industrialist Emil Korner. Kokoschka had been friendly with the Korner family since his young days in Vienna and his stays at the House of Elrig, a few miles from Whithorn, were times of untroubled artistic productivity.

In August and September 1945, he painted a series of watercolours showing Doris with a cat on her lap. Doris was a young relative of the host who spent her summer holidays at Elrig. “She was always pleased when she could get out of the housework by modelling with the cat for Kokoschka. Her task was to hold onto the cat who was always trying to bolt", Olda Kokoschka recalled in 1991.

The great fascination which the subject 'girl with cat' held for Kokoschka is shown in the way that he use these sketches for his last oil painting of 1973–76.

Hew Lorimer's sculpture in Whithorn

Hew Lorimer (1907 – 1993) is one of Scotland's best-known sculptors though his work at Whithorn is often overlooked. The creator of some of the most prominent large-scale work of the second half of the twentieth century, in June of 1993 he received a papal knighthood in recognition of his sculptures for the Church.

Awarded the OBE in 1986 for services to architecture and conservation, he had been made an honorary Doctor of Laws at Dundee University three years earlier. One of his major works is the relief panel of the saint on St Francis' Church in Dundee, completed in the 1940s, and in 1986 he completed a crucifixion for the university chapel, one of his last works.

Other famous works include the seven allegorical figures which decorate the facade of the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, sculpted in their places over three years in the early 1950s. During the same period he completed the 27ft Our Lady of the Isles on South Uist in partnership with Maxwell Allan.

The Whithorn Crucifix was sculpted in 1959and is sited above the Pilgrimage Altar at the rear of the Roman Catholic Church to SS. Ninian, Martin and John on George Street. The figure of Christ looks out over open fields to the Solway Firth. Sadly it has not weathered well and poor stone cleaning in 1997 has added to the loss of some detail. Despite this the crucifix retains a strong emotional power. Hew Lorimer had completed a similar firure, the sculpture of Christ the King, for the Dawson mausoleum and Chapel in St Ninian's Burial Ground, Fochabers.

Born in Edinburgh, son of the distinguished architect Sir Robert Lorimer, Hew Lorimer was educated at Loretto School and Edinburgh College of Art. After graduating in 1934, he entered an apprenticeship with the sculptor Eric Gill in London. Following the Second World War he restored Kellie Castle, Pittenweem, Fife, which his family had occupied for more than a century, living there with his family until his wife's death in 1970.

Until his retirement Hew Lorimer remained as custodian of the castle, which came into the care of the National Trust for Scotland. He was Fife representative of the trust for many years and originated the Little Houses Scheme which saw the trust extending its preservation work to smaller homes, one of which was the Pend House in Whithorn. In 2009, due to funding difficulties, the National Trust for Scotland closed Kellie Castle to the public.


Sir Robert Lorimer, Hew’s father, carried out alterations to Galloway House creating an opulent entrance hall and adding extensions to the exterior in 1909.