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EDINBURGH
25 SEPTEMBER - 14 NOVEMBER
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In Raeburn’s obituary this, or perhaps another version of the picture, is mentioned as part of Raeburn’s own collection of portraits which he executed 'for his private gratification'. There is a simplicity to Jeffrey’s portrayal. Set against a buff coloured background, there are no attributes to describe Jeffrey’s position or status as was often the case with men of his professional class. The relaxed but direct gaze of the sitter gives an immediacy and presence, as if he has just taken his seat, glove still in hand. Raeburn’s genius for revealing the person is evident here. For all that Jeffrey’s garb of black overcoat and white stock couldn’t be simpler, Raeburn has deftly painted them in broad distinctive strokes.
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The impact of this picture was clearly felt beyond the Cockburnspath coterie in the works of allies such as Alfred East and James Paterson who embraced grand manner plein-airisme. Its ripple effect would reverberate in later west of Scotland canvases by the likes of George Henry and Robert Macaulay Stevenson, who painted hillsides with snaking paths and streams. With thanks to Professor Kenneth McConkey
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The spine of the green book indistinctly reads Good-Bye to All That (1929), Robert Graves’ autobiography. It describes the passing of an old order following the cataclysm of the First World War; the inadequacies of patriotism; the rise of atheism, feminism, socialism and pacifism; and the changes to traditional married life. McCance was a conscientious objector and, in 1955, he and Miller Parker parted ways. How much this still life points to their relationship at this stage of their marriage is conjecture. It does, however, bring to the fore concerns and debates around women’s rights of the time.
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'In those days – and I don’t know how I did it – I had a way of putting on paint and then rubbing something all over it to soften the image and then sharpening it all up by careful reworking. I let the paint make the suggestions into something more solid. In other words these were abstractions which gradually were turned into realist pictures. The concept was abstract but the means was realism.'
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'Realism, or naturalism, is much more difficult than what I was painting in the 1930s . It’s much easier in lots of ways to make up a picture than to paint nature as it appears before us… I have a deep feeling that nature is immensely dignified when you’re out of doors. I’m struck by the dignity of everything.'
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