User:AnnaCloney/sandbox



Early Life and Family

James Humbert Craig was born at 16 Brougham Street Belfast, on the 12th of July 1877. Soon after his birth his family moved to Ballyholme Road, Bangor County Down. Here they built a house and named it ‘Craigwelyn’ after the last name of the family. Craig was the son of Alexander Craig, a tea merchant working on tea imports in Belfast. His mother, Marie Sabine Metezzen, was a Swiss native coming from a creative family in Lausanne. This is where Craig got his flair for painting, which he began by using the plywood from the sides of tea chests from his father. Metezzen came to Ireland with a school friend from Switzerland who travelled to Belfast to visit his family working in the Belfast ship building industry. She married Alexander Craig in 1874 in Castlereagh Presbyterian Church, Down. James Craig grew up in a wealthy house where he was privately tutored at home in ‘Craigwelyn’. Craig was a fond lover of sports, his favourite being anything to do with the sea. This fascination was carried into his love of art with him later taking a great amount of time painting the Northern Coast of Ireland. Craig enjoyed sailing, swimming and angling with his father, while being a strong player of rugby and football. He went on to be one of the founders of the Bangor Rugby Club, hoping to inspire many more young boys to take up the sport. The family later moved to 160 Groomsport Road, to which they named the house ‘Craiglea’, in reference once again to the family name, this house was later demolished in 1986. Craig was a very talented boy, taking a fancy with many instruments and playing with the Belfast Philharmonic Orchestra on occasion. As the only son Craig began apprenticing his father at the age of fourteen, he stayed only for a couple of years before enrolling in the Belfast School of Art to continue his love of painting. However, Craig left the college after a term and emigrated to America, he stayed for a short time working small jobs including painting the Brooklyn Bridge while under construction. After witnessing a suicide from the bridge, Craig returned home and began to paint the landscapes he was much more comfortable with - mostly the coast of Ireland.