200 Years of Scottish Painting

For a small country, and one whose national school was late in developing, the history of Scotland's visual arts is particularly rich and diverse. From each generation one can pick a number of artists from the front rank and in this show we have about a dozen such examples. As a commercial gallery we can only exhibit what the artmarket can supply. The best Scottish paintings, especially those of the later 19th and early 20th centuries, have for some time been fiercely competed for when they come up for sale and this trend continues.

This exhibition begins with Sir Henry Raeburn who, as a result of his travels in Italy, developed into a sophisticated artist capable of great elegance as well as beautifully observed insights into the characters of his sitters. Sir David Wilkie achieved a similar eminence and was the first Scot to have a substantial international reputation. For the twenty years before his death in 1841 his standing in Europe was the equal of Turner and Constable. His success in London inspired many of the best Scottish painters of the mid nineteenth century to move south where they could achieve recognition, status and fortune. By the end of the nineteenth century it was the norm, rather than the exception, to travel. This lent a more cosmopolitan outlook and a confidence to their pictures. By the beginning of the twentieth century the Colourists took the situation one step further by spending long periods of their careers living in France.

Scottish artists were and are a disparate lot, and although there are groups and schools and movements, there are also loners and those who are fiercely independent. The Scottishness of Scottish art is elusive but it clearly exists in the sheer enjoyment of painting highlighted in this exhibition.

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