FILLANS, JAMES, sculptor, was born at Wilsontovvn, Lanark shire, on the 27th of March, 1803. His father become reduced in circumstances, removed into Renfrewshire while 'James was yet a child, and the boy was early set to the keeping of sheep and similar employments, and consequently received scarcely any school educa tion. When old enough he was apprenticed to a weaver at Paisley ; but disliking the occupation, was at the end of a year placed with a stone-mason. At this business, after having served his apprenticeship, he for awhile worked as a journeyman. But he had, during his spare hours, even when engaged as a weaver, been teaching himself to draw and to make clay modela, and by perseverance he attained sufficient skill to win some local celebrity. Motherwell, the poet, was at this time the editor of the Paisley Advertiser,' and he warmly encouraged the young man's tastes, and judiciously guided his aspirations. Fillans found in Paisley, at his moderate prices, patrons for small portraits busts, and fancy figures; but he determined to try the wider field of Glasgow, as much in order to avail himself of the additional facilities that city afforded for improvement in art, as in the expectation of increased patronage. He however met with both, and after a time was in a condition to visit Paris for the purpose of further study.
On his return in 1836 he established himself in Loudon, where he found many warm Scotch friends, among others Allan Cunningham, who sat to him for his bust, and introduced him to Chantrey.
At the exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1837, Fillans had seven busts, including one of Allan Cunningham, which attracted some attention. He now produced a Tam o' Shanter jug; The Birth of Burns,' an and other designs of a similar kind, forming a Burns series, which have been more than sufficiently praised; and he received a commission for a bust of Mr. Oswald of Auchincruive, for his tenantry, which led him to visit Italy, Mrs Oswald being then resident on the continent. While still depending upon portrait busts
for his means of support, Mr. Fillans was not negligent of loftier sub jects. Ma chief work of this order was a life-sized group in marble, The Blind Teaching the Blind,' a work of real merit and some originality : it was exhibited iu Glasgow, where it produced a great sensation. His ' Boy and Fawn' was another admirable production.
But the works which established his fame were his colossal statue of Sir James Shaw, for the baronet's native town of Kilmarnock, and the bust of John Wilson—both characteristic works, that of Wilson being indeed by far the most striking head of the poet which has been pro duced. In Scotland they were received with enthusiasm, and the sculptor was congratulated with two or three public dinners given in his honour. Still, though ao far successful, he found his income insuf ficient to maintain establishments in London and Glasgow, and he resolved to quit the metropolis, his commissions having been chiefly derived from his countrymen. He removed to Glasgow iu 1851, but his health, already impaired, became gradually worse ; and at length an attack of rheumatic fever carried him off on the 12th of Sep tember 1852. He had been engaged as as his strength permitted upon a colossal statue of 'Rachel Weeping for her Children,' but left it unfinished.
A life of James Fillans, by James Paterson, was published at Paisley in 1854, in a handsome quarto volumo. It contains engravings of his principal statues, of his designs for Motherwell's tomb, the Burns series, an elaborate series of designs of Taming the Wild Horse,' and a set of deaigns illustrative of a tale by a friend. It also contains several pieces of poetry, in which Mr. Paterson finds much to admire, but which would have been as well left in the manuscript, except as evidence of the sculptor's kindheartedness. Fillans used the pencil as well as the chisel, but with by no means equal success.