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The Wilkie Tradition: EDINBURGH

Past viewing_room
25 September - 24 November 2020
  •  
    EDINBURGH 
    25 SEPTEMBER - 24 OCTOBER
  • Scottish pastoral life became a literary focus at the close of the 18th century in the poetry of Burns, Ramsay...

    Scottish pastoral life became a literary focus at the close of the 18th century in the poetry of Burns, Ramsay and Fergusson. This, combined with an emerging availability of engravings after the Dutch and Fleming masters, encouraged artists in Scotland to look closer to home for their subject matter and away from antiquity and the classical tradition. David Allan can be largely credited with leading Scottish artistic taste toward genre painting, guiding Wilkie and his successors toward a new tradition. Allan was followed by Alexander Carse whose paintings were to exert a strong influence over the early work of Sir David Wilkie. Carse’s painting of Oldhamstock Fair (1796, National Galleries of Scotland) proved inspirational to the young Wilkie who produced a counterpart to this picture with his Pitlessie Fair (1804, National Galleries of Scotland). This painting, with its numerous groups of figures, painted with carefully studied expressions, contains all the elements which were to become important in the context of Scottish genre painting.

     

    Wilkie gained public and official recognition early, enjoying great success both in his native Scotland and in London where he settled in 1805. At the relatively young age of 24, Wilkie was elected into the Royal Academy, becoming a full member in 1811, and two years later was commissioned to paint Blind Man’s Buff (1811, Royal Collection) for the Prince Regent. The Prince’s favour was important to Wilkie and on his accession George IV continued to reward him. At Sir Henry Raeburn’s death in 1823 Wilkie was appointed King’s Limner in Scotland, and when Sir Thomas Lawrence died in 1830 he was further appointed Royal Painter in Ordinary, an office confirmed by William IV and, later, Queen Victoria. He was awarded a knighthood in 1836.

     

    Wilkie’s work was of huge importance to Scottish genre painting both during his life and throughout the nineteenth century. Although the passage of time has slightly diminished his fame and reputation, in his lifetime, he was regarded as the equal of his great contemporaries Turner and Constable. With his rapidly growing popularity it is not surprising that he soon had many followers, in both choice and treatment of subject. Indeed, his example was so potent that there were few Scottish genre painters of his generation who did not work more or less in his manner. While following his lead in subject matter and learning from his prodigious technical skills, they were nonetheless an individualistic and disparate group of painters.

  • SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841) ALEXANDER AITKEN, c.1804-1806 oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.5 cm 30 x...

    SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841)

    ALEXANDER AITKEN, c.1804-1806

    oil on canvas

    76.2 x 63.5 cm    30 x 25 inches

         

    Provenance: Lt. Col. G. L. Leslie-Smith (family of the sitter), thence by descent; Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York, 1994

     

    Exhibited: Bourne Fine Art, Scottish Art 1720-1950, Edinburgh, August 2006

     

    Early in Wilkie’s career he painted a series of thirteen single portraits, most of which were commissioned by local landowners and professional men in the Cupar region of Fife. These date from the latter part of 1804, when Wilkie left the Trustee’s Academy, to May 1805, prior to his departure from Scotland for London. They may have been commissioned with the specific intention of encouraging the local artist, then only around 20 years old. This portrait was likely revised in 1806, as the payment for the painting arrived around 30 July 1806.

     

    These early portraits of Wilkie’s are indebted to Raeburn in their format and their openness of handling, as the young artist was still to develop his signature style. This portrait bears stylistic and compositional similarities to Wilkie’s Self Portrait from the same period that is in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh).

     

    The teenaged sitter, Alexander Aitken (1789-1871) was the eldest son of George Aitken of Todhall and Janet Panton. He lived at Cupar, later working as a banker before becoming a Colonel in the Fifeshire Militia and Captain in the Black Watch.

  • SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841) FARMYARD SCENE, 1815 signed and dated 1815 on panel verso oil on...

    SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841)

    FARMYARD SCENE, 1815

    signed and dated 1815 on panel verso

    oil on panel

    12.7 x 22.2 cm    5 x 8 3/4 inches

         

    Provenance: Purchased from the artist by General Sir James Willoughby Gordon; his son Sir Henry Percy Gordon; his daughter Julia Gordon; her grandson The Hon John Disney Leith; his wife Mrs Jock Leith; sold by her executors in Edinburgh in 1980, where purchased by Anthony Reed, London; Bourne Fine Art 1993; Private collection, Scotland

     

    The composition of this little panel is highly informal and suggests that, like a number of other similar small panels by Wilkie from these years, it was painted out of doors, perhaps on the spot. His interest in painting en plein air is confirmed by a reference that he made to it in a letter he wrote in 1812 to his landlady, and again four years later in 1816 writing to his friend Perry Nursey. In that year he also exhibited Sheepwashing, the only full sized landscape painting that he ever exhibited. He said of this picture 'I certainly wish to gain some proficiency in this way; but my ambition is no more than that of enabling myself to paint an outdoor scene with facility and in no respect to depart from my own line.'

     

    Wilkie had first embarked on this kind of painting as early as 1809 when staying with Sir George Beaumont. Beaumont was himself an amateur landscape painter and Wilkie shared his patronage with his own close friend John Constable. Despite the accomplishment and charm of his landscape studies, Wilkie was true to his word in not developing the art for its own sake.  Even as a subsidiary element landscape is rare. 

  • SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841) THE CONTINENCE OF SCIPIO indistinctly inscribed pen and ink 18.4 x 25.4...

    SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841)

    THE CONTINENCE OF SCIPIO

    indistinctly inscribed

    pen and ink

    18.4 x 25.4 cm    7 1/4 x 10 inches

     

    Publius Cornelius Scipio (c.235-183 BC) was a Roman general and considered one of the greatest soldiers and military strategists of the ancient world. He defeated the Carthaginian leader Hannibal in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), ending Carthage’s expansion through Europe. Throughout his campaigns Scipio became known for his humanitarian conduct towards prisoners and hostages by showing clemency and granting freedom to the defeated.

     

    After Scipio captured the Spanish city of New Carthage during the second Punic War, his soldiers presented him with a young princess as a war prize. Having heard that she was engaged to an important local leader, Scipio declined the gift on account of him being their General and having a moral duty towards the girl’s virtue. He returned her to her father and bequeathed the fiancé with precious gifts.

     

    The episode was first recounted by Roman historian Livy and from the Renaissance onwards, it became a popular subject in both the literary and figurative arts, celebrated as an example of continence and mercy displayed by a war commander in classical times. Typically, Scipio is shown seated on a throne on a raised dais with the Spanish party and his soldiers kneeling at his feet. Here, Wilkie has shown Scipio as actively participating in returning the princess to her fiancé. Its composition compares to Rembrandt’s etching, Christ healing the sick, also known as the Hundred guilder print, which Wilkie will have been familiar with. The fluidity of Wilkie’s line is almost calligraphic.

  • SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841) a sketch for 'THE CHELSEA PENSIONERS READING THE WATERLOO DISPATCH' ink on...

    SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841)

    a sketch for 'THE CHELSEA PENSIONERS READING THE WATERLOO DISPATCH'

    ink on paper

    12.1 x 11.4 cm    4 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches

         

    Provenance: The collection of Thomas Esmond Lowinsky, no.1649

     

    The oil, for which this is a preparatory study, was commissioned by the Duke of Wellington in 1816 and currently hangs in the collection of Apsley House, London. The painting's focus on ordinary people made a significant impression on Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) when he viewed the unfinished work in Wilkie's studio in the spring of 1821. Completed in 1822, it was exhibited in the Royal Academy that year where it was so popular that a rail was installed to protect it from the crowds.

     

    The first painted sketch for The Chelsea Pensioners was made in 1818 so this sketch could be dated as early as between 1816 and 1818. This ink sketch shows various studies of the central group in the final oil, in particular the man leaning back in his chair. The Chelsea Pensioners are reading the ‘Waterloo Dispatch’, sent by the Duke of Wellington to the Waterloo Gazette on 19 June 1815, announcing the victory of the British and Prussians against Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Waterloo which ended the Napoleonic Wars.

  • SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841) HOLYROOD HOUSE, 1822 signed and inscribed 'D Wilkie Holyrood House 1822' pencil...

    SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841)

    HOLYROOD HOUSE, 1822

    signed and inscribed 'D Wilkie Holyrood House 1822'

    pencil

    12.7 x 17.1 cm    5 x 6 3/4 inches

     

    Provenance: The collection of the Hon. H. Dalrymple

     

    This is one of numerous sketches for the oil painting, The Entrance of George IV at Holyroodhouse, which Wilkie painted to commemorate the King’s visit to Scotland in 1822. George iv was the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland since Charles II. Memories of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-6, of the battle of Culloden and the massacre of Glencoe, were still strong. However, the clans were no longer seen as a threat to the Hanoverian monarchy, and the Celtic Society, founded in 1820, was intended to foster Scottish traditions in the romantic spirit of Sir Walter Scott’s writings rather than to act as a focus for Jacobite dissent. Scott was instrumental in persuading the King to visit Edinburgh, and he choreographed the whole event, devising the costumes and ceremonies.

     

    Whilst at Holyrood, Wilkie was able to attend a Drawing Room given by the King. This sketch is likely to be a recollection of the event drawn from memory a few months later.

  • SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841) THE MISSES MARY AND ELIZABETH CLERK, SISTERS OF LORD ELDIN oil on...

    SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841)

    THE MISSES MARY AND ELIZABETH CLERK, SISTERS OF LORD ELDIN

    oil on panel

    15.9 x 17.8 cm    6 1/4 x 7 inches

         

    Provenance: J.T. Gibson Craig; his sale at Dowell's, Edinburgh, 1887; A.B. Yuille, Bridge of Allan; his sale, Christie's, 1909;

    Brown & Brown, Liverpool, 1951; Private collection, Edinburgh

     

    Mary and Elizabeth Clerk were daughters of the artist John Clerk of Eldin, and their brother John Clerk, Lord Eldin, was a great patron of the arts in Edinburgh. Lord Eldin struck up a friendship with several Edinburgh artists: from Wilkie he commissioned a sketch of The Chelsea Pensioners, and a copy of The Blind Fiddler. Rather than a typical commission, this informal study may well have been an affirmation of Wilkie's acquaintance with the Clerk family, whom he visited when in Edinburgh in July 1817, and August 1822. This study probably emanates from the latter date.

  • SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841) YOUNG GIRL WITH A DOG, 1829 inscribed 'D Wilkie January 19th 1829'...

    SIR DAVID WILKIE ra hrsa (1785 - 1841)

    YOUNG GIRL WITH A DOG, 1829

    inscribed 'D Wilkie January 19th 1829'

    pencil and watercolour with ink on paper

    20.3 x 17.1 cm    8 x 6 3/4 inches

         

    Provenance: Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York; Private collection, USA

     

    At the age of 40, and following a bout of ill-health, Wilkie set out on his Grand Tour of Europe in the summer of 1825. Travelling through France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, he reached Spain in October 1827. He would remain there for seven months, studying the works of the Old Masters which he viewed at El Escorial, Madrid and in Toledo. Wilkie found the culture and history of Spain invigorating. He admired the 'sparkle and vivacity' of Velazquez in a letter to Sir Thomas Lawrence, drawing links between his portraits and those of Sir Henry Raeburn. 'I have now,' he wrote, 'from the study of the old Masters, adopted a bolder and, I think, a more effective style'. He was particularly taken with depictions of the Spanish Infantas, blending the splendour of their royal station with the innocence and simplicity of childhood.

     

    While in Madrid he executed two works depicting a young Spanish girl, said to be the daughter of his host in Madrid. Her composition was later incorporated into his portrait of Princess (later Queen) Victoria. Our study dates between these portraits and was completed in 1829, the year after Wilkie’s return to London. Stylistic and compositional elements from each are present. We cannot know whether this drawing was intended as a preparatory study for his portrait of Victoria, though the work forms a link between it and his Spanish studies.

     

    Nicholas Tromans notes that ‘Wilkie's handling of paint loosened in comparison with the minutely finished genre pictures which had made him famous ... Most importantly, almost every trace of the comic was erased from his art as the 16th century Italian masters which he was now looking at so intently supplanted the more homely Netherlandish models of his early career’.

     

    Reference: Nicholas Tromans, David Wilkie: The People's Painter (Edinburgh, 2007)

  • DAVID ALLAN (1744 - 1796) MEMORANDUM OF CHEESE MARKET inscribed 'memorandum of cheese market' and further inscribed throughout pen and...

    DAVID ALLAN (1744 - 1796)

    MEMORANDUM OF CHEESE MARKET

    inscribed 'memorandum of cheese market' and further inscribed throughout

    pen and ink

    11.4 x 18.4 cm    4 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches

         

    Provenance: Abbot and Holder Gallery, London, 1991; collection of Dr Edward Brett

     

    After studying at the then new Foulis Academy, Glasgow, Allan left for Rome in the late 1760s and spent the next ten years there, studying under Gavin Hamilton, sketching life around him and painting historical scenes.

     

    An outcome of Allan’s training was his extensive use of record-keeping and preparatory studies for his works, often executed in situ and annotated with more complex elements for future paintings. Quick descriptions of colours could later be worked up in studio paintings, and Allan’s combined use of sketches and verbal descriptions acted as an efficient means of recalling scenes. In this study, the leftmost figure has been depicted from two angles with aspects of her costume noted in place of pigment; her yellow bustle and dark tartan shawl recorded and retained for incorporation into a larger composition.

     

    Allan was arguably the first of the Scottish genre painters; his watercolours of such scenes as The Penny Wedding and The Origin of Painting influencing future exponents Carse, Geikie and Wilkie. These latter artists were influenced not only by the broader subject of his works, but equally specific depictions, techniques, and use of humour.

  • DAVID ALLAN (1744 - 1796) CATECHISING IN THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, 1795 signed and dated 'D. Allan del 1795' watercolour...

    DAVID ALLAN (1744 - 1796)

    CATECHISING IN THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, 1795

    signed and dated 'D. Allan del 1795'

    watercolour

    31.1 x 47.6 cm    12 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

         

    Provenance: Christie's, London, 18 June 1980; the collection of Dr Edward Brett

     

    Literature: Stephen Jackson, 'Kirk Furnishings: The Liturgical Material Culture of the Scottish Reformation',

    Regional Furniture, vol.XXI, (2007) pg.16

     

    One of three known versions, this was likely intended as a companion piece to The Repentence Stool, (1794, National Galleries of Scotland) - the subject being a small, wooden, 3-legged stool that placed in full view of the congregation and where the offender could be delivered an admonishment from the minister. The interior in this watercolour is thought to be Dunfermline Abbey: the green napery draped upon the pulpit and lower lectern was customary from the early seventeenth century and visible at the left of the pulpit is an iron bracket for a silver or pewter baptismal basin.

     

    Catechising - a means of instruction through a series of questions and answers - became a part of life in Scottish churches with itinerant catechists being employed. Over-enthusiastic preachers were kept to their allotted time by the hourglass on the pulpit.  Here the minister questions a man on his faith but around him is all of life. Before the pulpit sits a girl reading from a page inscribed ‘Catechism of / the Kirk of / Scotland / …’; a mother pulls in a reluctant son armed with a book entitled ‘Shorter Chatect..’ [sic]. In the background, with characteristic humour, Allan depicts a church warden remonstrating at restive boys running amok who contrast with the seated boy reading his prayer book with stick and ball set aside.

     

     

  • ALEXANDER CARSE (1770 - 1843) THE TRAVELLING CLOTHIER, 1812 initialled and dated 'A. C. 1812' oil on canvas 58.4 x...

    ALEXANDER CARSE (1770 - 1843)

    THE TRAVELLING CLOTHIER, 1812

    initialled and dated 'A. C. 1812'

    oil on canvas

    58.4 x 76.2 cm    23 x 30 inches

     

    Carse is often referred to as a ‘follower of Wilkie’, though he had earlier anticipated and influenced him. Fifteen years senior to Wilkie, Alexander Carse was a fellow student at the Trustees’ Academy from 1801, having previously studied under David Allan. The two shared a keen sociological interest, grounding their work in depictions of the everyday and social occasions. Carse was never interested in major historical events or the great figures of history but rather in the customs and changes of ordinary social life. The late 18th and early 19th centuries were a period of great change in rural living standards. Even so, Carse was painting life as it was and not with nostalgia.

     

    This work was painted in 1812, the year that Carse travelled to London in the hopes of attaining the success enjoyed by Wilkie. He captures the excitement of a visit from a travelling pedlar to a village on the south east of  Edinburgh. The main event sees a young woman inspecting the quality of the cloth whilst an older lady remonstrates with him. Smaller gatherings draw the scene out: two men talk with a basket of potatoes at their feet; a group of women are deep in conversation; and on the main street, a man on a mule looks to be paying the innkeeper. Beside the pedlar is small stone outbuilding that might house a cooperage and in the far distance is Edinburgh Castle.

    • JAMES HOWE (1780 - 1836) BOY WASHING HORSES IN A STABLE signed 'How' pen and ink 27.3 x 40 cm 10 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches

      JAMES HOWE (1780 - 1836)

      BOY WASHING HORSES IN A STABLE

      signed 'How'

      pen and ink

      27.3 x 40 cm   10 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches

    • JAMES HOWE (1780 - 1836) HORSE TETHERED IN A STABLE signed 'How' pen and ink 26.7 x 40.6 cm 10 1/2 x 16 inches

      JAMES HOWE (1780 - 1836)

      HORSE TETHERED IN A STABLE

      signed 'How'

      pen and ink

      26.7 x 40.6 cm   10 1/2 x 16 inches

       

    • JAMES HOWE (1780 - 1836) TWO HORSES BY A FENCE signed 'How' pen and ink 27.3 x 40 cm 10 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches

      JAMES HOWE (1780 - 1836)

      TWO HORSES BY A FENCE

      signed 'How'

      pen and ink

      27.3 x 40 cm   10 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches

    Close
  • Howe did not attend the Trustees’ Academy but was, instead, apprenticed to the Norie family as a house painter and decorator. He moved to London in 1806 to pursue his career but met with limited success and two years later returned to Edinburgh. Humour and character are forefront in Howe’s pictures, also a love for high spirits and mischief in both animal and human life. Although a painter of less technical sophistication than his contemporaries, Howe’s work has all the vitality and authenticity of a scene understood and experienced by the artist.

     

    In a series of ink drawings, three illustrated here, Howe has observed the behaviour and movement of horses. From racehorses, to hunters and work horses and mules, all are seen with compassion. At his best, line, movement and immediacy are expressed. Others depend more on their humour.

     

    A volume of engravings after his drawings was published in Edinburgh by W.H. Lizars in 1824, entitled Fourteen Engravings from Drawings of the Horse, and a further series of prints entitled National Work depicting the breeds of horses and cattle in Scotland, was issued in three parts between 1829 and 1831 by Ballantyne & Company of Edinburgh.

  • ANDREW GEDDES ara (1783 - 1844) ANTHONY STEWART, JOHN BURNET AND ANDREW GEDDES oil on panel 43.8 x 60.3 cm...

    ANDREW GEDDES ara (1783 - 1844)

    ANTHONY STEWART, JOHN BURNET AND ANDREW GEDDES

    oil on panel

    43.8 x 60.3 cm    17 1/4 x 23 3/4 inches

     

    Andrew Geddes originally trained for the excise office, where he worked under his father for five years. Two years after his father’s death in 1803, Geddes pursued the artistic career of which has father had disapproved, moving to London and entering the Royal Academy school. He quickly made contact with the miniaturist Anthony Stewart, a friend of his father, who Geddes describes in his memoirs as having taken 'care that his young friend should see every thing [sic] connected with art during his stay in London'. Stewart introduced Geddes to his fellow apprentice, engraver and painter John Burnet. Also the son of a Scottish excise officer who had recently moved to London, the two quickly formed a friendship.

     

    This intimate scene depicts the three friends in conversation. Stewart is seated to the left listening attentively, Burnet to the right, and Geddes is standing between the two.

     

    While at the Royal Academy in London, Geddes also became close friends with Wilkie. An exquisite portrait of Wilkie by Geddes painted in 1816 is in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (1816, Edinburgh). Like Wilkie, Geddes was also an accomplished printmaker and they are largely credited for the revival of etching in Scotland during the early 19th century.

     

    Reference: Andrew Geddes, Memoir Of The Late Andrew Geddes ARA (London, 1844) pg.9

  • WALTER GEIKIE rsa (1795 - 1837) EDINBURGH AND LOCHEND LOCH signed 'Wr. Geikie' oil on canvas 63.5 x 88.3 cm...

    WALTER GEIKIE rsa (1795 - 1837)

    EDINBURGH AND LOCHEND LOCH

    signed 'Wr. Geikie'

    oil on canvas

    63.5 x 88.3 cm    25 x 34 3/4 inches

     

    Provenance: Richard J Simpson, Hermitage, Corstorphine; The Hon. Lord Hunter, Little Ruchlaw, Stenton

     

    While Geikie excelled in his depictions of characters and the animation of urban life, he occasionally turned his attention to more tranquil scenes outside Edinburgh’s Old Town. Contemporaneous accounts suggest that Geikie’s work in pigments may have been affected by colour-blindness, and, as such, some of his oil landscapes have been judged for their palette. The subtleties of his palette, however, convey the limpid kind of day that are familiar on the east coast of Scotland. He was given some tutorage by Andrew Wilson (1780-1848) whose painting style and palette are not dissimilar.

     

    Here, Geikie has taken Lochend Loch on the north east side of Edinburgh. Lochend House sits to the left above the loch and on the right is a 16th century doocot. Beyond is the city of Edinburgh and its instantly recognisable skyline of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags; the Palace of Holyroodhouse is visible in the centre. The scene may well be a companion to Edinburgh from the South in the collection of the City Art Centre (1832, Edinburgh), which is similar in composition, and focuses on the same landmarks from the other side of the city.

     

    Reference: Helen Scott, 'The Art and Life of Walter Geikie', Aspects of the Life and Works of Archibald Geikie, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, vol.480 (2019)

    • WALTER GEIKIE rsa (1795 - 1837) OUR GUDEMAN'S A DRUCKEN CARLE signed in plate etching 17.8 x 17.1 cm 7 x 6 3/4 inches

      WALTER GEIKIE rsa (1795 - 1837)

      OUR GUDEMAN'S A DRUCKEN CARLE

      signed in plate

      etching

      17.8 x 17.1 cm    7 x 6 3/4 inches

    • WALTER GEIKIE rsa (1795 - 1837) THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING signed in plate etching 20.9 x 15.2 cm 8 1/4 x 6 inches

      WALTER GEIKIE rsa (1795 - 1837)

      THE ORIGIN OF PAINTING

      signed in plate

      etching

      20.9 x 15.2 cm    8 1/4 x 6 inches

    Close
  • Geikie had an eye for Edinburgh street life, and produced brilliant satirical studies of Scottish life. His drawings are often witty although at the same time show real poverty with understanding. The scenes which best convey this are these simple groups which explore the relation of characters to each other. His treatment of urban subject matter founded on social realism was unusual in the early nineteenth century, but allowed for the good humour he shared with his contemporaries.

     

    Left deaf and dumb from an illness from the age of two, Geikie studied at the Trustees’ Academy under Alexander Wilson, who introduced him to his future patron the Earl of Hopetoun. Following his death, a collection of his work was published as Etchings Illustrative of Scottish Character and Scenery, from which these plates are taken. The posthumous publication of the book in 1841 bolstered Geikie’s reputation and gave wider exposure to his work.

  • WILLIAM KIDD hrsa (1796 - 1863) AN ALEHOUSE ALTERCATION signed oil on panel 36.2 x 48.3 cm 14 1/4 x...

    WILLIAM KIDD hrsa (1796 - 1863)

    AN ALEHOUSE ALTERCATION

    signed

    oil on panel

    36.2 x 48.3 cm    14 1/4 x 19 inches

         

    Provenance: Private collection, USA

      

    Kidd first studied under James Howe the animal painter, but it was the work of Carse and Wilkie which had the strongest influence on his painting. Aged 14, he was apprenticed to a house painter alongside David Roberts and two other budding artists. The four set up an amateur drawing school in the run-down Mary King’s Close with a donkey as their model.

     

    Humour and pathos are a constant in his work, and his depictions of the labour and pastimes of Edinburgh’s ordinary inhabitants show both empathy and familiarity. More so than most of his contemporaries, his figures appear as portraits of people known to him, while the animation and theatrics of his scenes show understanding of the composition as a whole. Although he was a prolific and accomplished artist he lived in continual poverty due to his mis-management of financial affairs. The diaries of his childhood friend Roberts speak to this continued plight, with entries of 'Poor William Kidd, five pounds' peppered throughout.

     

    In the panel illustrated here, we are given no clue as to what might have brough about the disagreement. It has gone on long and loud enough to draw spectators to the window and people to charge the room, including a farrier with a cooling iron in hand.

     

    Reference: James Ballantine, The Life of David Roberts, R.A., Compiled from his Journals and Other Sources (Edinburgh, 1866)

  • THOMAS DUNCAN ara rsa (1807 - 1845) THE MILKMAID, 1835 dated 1835 on label verso oil on panel 61 x...

    THOMAS DUNCAN ara rsa (1807 - 1845)

    THE MILKMAID, 1835

    dated 1835 on label verso

    oil on panel

    61 x 43.8 cm    24 x 17 1/4 inches

     

    The majority of Duncan's exhibited work consisted of portraiture. From an early date, however, he tackled scenes from modern history that had been made popular by Wilkie, and was especially successful with subjects from the ’45 Rebellion. It is this kind of historical narrative picture for which he is best remembered. These are principally of subjects taken from the novels of Sir Walter Scott and, in the spirit of Scott, of scenes from Scottish history of the kind that William Allan had begun to paint a few years earlier. The milkmaid bridges several of these areas of interest: it is possible this is a scene from life albeit romanticised. The model’s delicate physiognomy is Wilkie-esque and so too the fineness with which she is painted. 

     

    In 1838, Duncan was appointed professor of colour at the Trustees' Academy. The links between the London Scots and Edinburgh were close. His application for this post was supported by testimonials not only from his Edinburgh friends, but also from the two leading Scottish artists in London, Wilkie and David Roberts.

     

     

  • ALEXANDER FRASER Snr arsa (1786 - 1865) THE HERON signed; signed on panel verso oil on panel 18.4 x 26...

    ALEXANDER FRASER Snr arsa (1786 - 1865)

    THE HERON

    signed; signed on panel verso

    oil on panel

    18.4 x 26 cm    7 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches

     

    Fraser studied at the Trustees’ Academy alongside Wilkie, and in 1813 moved to London where he worked as Wilkie’s studio assistant, specialising in painting the still life elements in Wilkie’s paintings. He also took on the commissions for which Wilkie had not enough time. He was a prolific artist in his own right and look a large portion of his subject matter from Scottish life and literature.

     

    Art historian, James Caw describes him as ‘the ablest of Wilkie’s followers’ and ‘of many domestic painters amongst his [Wilkie’s] countrymen perhaps none was so directly influenced or possessed so much painting talent.'

     

    Reference: James L. Caw, Scottish Painting Past and Present 1620-1908 (London, 1908)

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Open Mon to Fri 10am - 6pm

Please make an appointment as, from time to time, the gallery is unmanned. 

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Online Viewing Rooms by Artlogic

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