Walter Inglis Anderson (American/Mississippi, 1903-1965), "Portrait of James "Mac" McConnell Anderson, Brother of the Artist", oil on canvas, unsigned, 26 in. x 19 in. E60000-80000 Provenance: Descended through the Anderson Family. Publications: Illustrated in Christopher Maurer Fortune's Favorite Child, the Uneasy Life of Walter Anderson, twelfth color plate. Note: Born in 1907, James "Mac" McConnell Anderson was four years younger than brother Walter Inglis Anderson, and the youngest of the three Anderson brothers. Both joined brother Peter and mother Annette in the summer of 1928 to assist in pottery decoration and design in the then year-old Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs. Mac had just finished a year at Tulane and worked along side Walter on the pots that Peter threw and developed glaze for. Both brothers showed an affinity for indigenous natural flora and fauna as motifs in their decoration. Peter admired Mac as a designer who "never complains, and better still, never worries" (Maurer, p. 55) Mac influenced Peter to appreciate the value of decoration on the pottery beyond fine shapes and innovative glaze colors. In spring of 1934, sponsored by the Federal Public Works Art Project, Peter and Mac created two panels of ceramic tiles for the entrance hall of a public school in Ocean Springs. In the same period, Walter was commissioned for large canvas murals entitled "Ocean Springs: Past and Present" for the auditorium. This portrait of Mac was probably painted in the duration of the mural project. A dedicated hunter and fisherman, Mac provided Walter Anderson with "specimens" of blue jays, meadow larks, kingfishers and night herons from which he made pen and ink with watercolor studies renderings, (see "Kingfisher, 1934" illustrated Maurer, p. 82) These studies are likely forerunners to Anderson's prolific production of watercolor paintings of birds and animals in later years. Mac married his wife Sara in 1940, and left employment at Shearwater in 1952, though he remained an important presence in the Anderson family.