William Brown Macdougall

William Brown Macdougall (16 December 1868 – 20 April 1936) was a Scottish artist, wood engraver, etcher and book illustrator.

Macdougall was born in Glasgow on 16 December 1868. He was married to Margaret Armour, the translator, poet and playwright. They collaborated with Aubrey Beardsley on many projects and were members of the prestigious New English Art Club. The couple lived in the Uplands, Loughton, and then for many years at Debden Green, Loughton in Essex, home at the time of a noted artistic and scientific community, where a Blue Plaque commemorating them was unveiled in 2012.

Macdougall received his art education at the Glasgow Academy and at the Académie Julian in Paris, also working in the studios of Bouguereau, Jean-Paul Laurens and Tony Robert-Fleury, and becoming a member of the Salon des Artistes Français. He contributed to The Yellow Book, The Evergreen, and The Savoy in the 1890s. His work tended to be somewhat sombre and was clearly influenced by Aubrey Beardsley and William Morris. He provided a frontispiece portrait of Robert Louis Stevenson for Margaret's first book, and illustrations for her books of poetry as well as her translations from medieval German. He only illustrated for a very brief period between 1896 and 1898, but contributed greatly to this form of art – his decorative vignettes seen in "The Fall of the Nibelungs", "Isabella, or the Pot of Basil" and "The Blessed Damozel" owe much to Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts Movement motifs.

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