Biographical Text
Fairbairn was born in Glasgow and worked as a shop-lad at the dyers Brand & Mollison. His art education consisted of three months of evening classes, after which he rented a room at Exchange Place in Edinburgh, where he became a successful painter. After this he removed to West Regent Street, Glasgow, and in 1850 left Glasgow for Hamilton, where he resided until his death. Whilst living in Hamilton, he produced many watercolours of Cadzow Forest, a popular haunt of Scottish landscape-painters. He is most well known for his sketches of old houses and localities around Glasgow, which were published in lithographic form by the publishers Miller & Buchanan.
