Nancy Jane Burton

Burton was born at Insh in Inverness-shire in the Scottish Highlands.^[3][4] She attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1909 to 1915, gaining her diploma in 1914.^[4] She taught art at a school in Callander and for a time lived at Aberfoyle, Stirling before moving to a farm at Tyndrum in Perthshire.^[2] In the early 1930s she visited her sister in northern India.^[3][2] Originally planned as a six-month trip, Burton's talents as an animal painter attracted a large number of commissions and so she decided to stay and took a house in Rawalpindi.^[5] She eventually spent four years in the region, travelling and painting, mostly in watercolour, in areas of northern India and modern-day Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan.^[6]

From the mid-1920s, Burton was a member of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists and won their Lauder Award in 1924, in 1931 and in 1946 and 1953.^[4] She was a prolific exhibitor, especially with the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts but also with the Royal Scottish Academy, the Aberdeen Artists Society and the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society.^[7][2][4] Works by Burton were also shown at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.^[4]