James McBey was a largely self-taught Scottish artist and etcher whose prints were highly valued during the later stages of the etching revival in the early 20th century. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Aberdeen University. McBey was born in Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, educated at his village school, and at the age of 15 years became a clerk in a local bank. After reading an article on etching in an art magazine, he borrowed from Aberdeen public library Maxime Lalanne’s treatise on etching Traité de la Gravure a l’Eau-Forte, attended evening classes at Gray’s School of Art, and taught himself how to create etchings on zinc plates. He printed the results on paper using a domestic mangle. By 1910 he had enough confidence in his own ability to abandon banking and spent the summer in the Netherlands where he viewed etchings by Rembrandt and etched 21 plates of his own. From 1910 onwards he travelled widely, visiting Europe, North Africa and America. By 1911 his etchings were of sufficiently high quality to earn him an exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in London and his prints were published in both London and Glasgow. In 1912 McBey travelled to Morocco with James Kerr Lawson and began working in watercolours.