John Milne Donald (1819-66) Autumn Leaves. Now this kind of scene is something that has not changed, thankfully. ‘A native of Nairn, John Milne Donald grew up in Glasgow apprenticed to a horse painter. After early years spent travelling to France and working as a picture restorer in London, in 1844 he returned to Glasgow to paint landscapes. While his early work tended to follow the dark and brown tones of the Dutch School, his later landscapes acquired freer and more luminous tones under the influence of Horatio McCulloch. Donald was a careful observer of nature and had considerable influence on the development of painting in Glasgow and upon younger west coast artists’ (The Fine Art Society, Edinburgh).