Earl Haig Memorial Exhibition
Earl Haig (1918-2009) Memorial Exhibition 4 – 29 June 2011
The Scottish Gallery 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ Tel 0131 558 1200 Email mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk
Cover: 1 Santa Maria Formosa oil on canvas 61 x 91.5 cms Left: 2 Bemersyde Tower oil on board 29 x 40 cms
3 Self Portrait II 1945 oil on canvas 34 x 46 cms
Foreword
Dawyck Haig’s ninetieth birthday exhibition in April 2008 turned out to be his last; a vale. We published a catalogue with a foreword from Prince Philip who pointed out that it was his friend’s fifteenth exhibition with The Scottish Gallery since 1945; a remarkable, consistent relationship between a gallery and an artist that can have had few equals. It perhaps goes without saying that he was one of the easiest and most charming men to represent and we miss him greatly. He would have looked upon the preparations for this Memorial show with an intense interest, a keen professional eye but also an element of bemusement or detachment, seeing his paintings anew recognising both decades of lonely toil and the significant contribution to 20th century landscape they surely represent. This show covers all the long years of his professional life and changes in his painting style and includes rare Colditz works on paper, many characteristic works in pen and watercolour made as direct observations, figure paintings, still life and the major landscape themes of the Scottish Borders, Venice and the Dolomites. We get some insight into how he saw his own creative process in his own words, written in a catalogue for an exhibition at The Scottish Gallery in March 1976
shortly after his first visit to Venice: “At home in the studio the task of picture making begins. I seize hold of equations of form and rhythmical relationships in my drawings and allow feeling to expand them in terms of colour and tonal relationships – a method more akin to expressionism than impressionism.” But to paraphrase Douglas Hall, who has written extensively on Haig, the work defies the art historian’s desire for neat compartments or stylistic progression but rather speaks of an artist deeply at one with his subject – the natural world – in which youthful joy and energy drive the synthesis. Haig’s place in history is assured as one of the most committed and vivid painters of his generation whose longevity and consistency of vision eventually earned him the plaudits he deserved. The man will be greatly missed by many and his memory will persist in the possession of his work. In the longer term his reputation can only grow as future generations discover the painter. Guy Peploe Managing Director The Scottish Gallery
4 Winter Trees oil on canvas 71 x 92 cms
5 Portrait of Fruzzy c.1989 oil on canvas 94 x 71 cms
6 Quiet Corner, Sulmona 1942 watercolour 32 x 31 cms
7 Canadian Flying Officer watercolour 46 x 32 cms
8 Prisoners oil on canvas 71 x 92 cms
9 Lodge Park with Cattle oil on board 77 x 151 cms
10 Venice Carnival, a Study ink and watercolour 26 x 33 cms
11 Dancers oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms
12 Study for Cordevole Bridge oil on canvas 45 x 76 cms
13 Cattulus’ Villa, Lake Garda, Sirmione oil on canvas 81 x 107 cms
14 Tulips in a Green Vase oil on canvas 91 x 70 cms
15 Portrait of Judy Hammond 1967 oil on canvas 93 x 71 cms
16 Canal Side Church, Venice pen, ink and pencil 30 x 42 cms
17 Squero San Trovaso oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms
18 The Squero ink and watercolour 33 x 45 cms
19 Capriccio Church of San Simeone, Grand Canal oil on canvas 31 x 41 cms
20 Traghetto oil on board 33 x 41 cms 21 Bride and Groom, Giudecca oil on canvas 86 x 112 cms
22 By the Sea near Rovigno 1983 watercolour 31 x 43 cms 23 Looking to Bemersyde ink, pencil and watercolour 38 x 57 cms
24 Trees and Sea watercolour 29 x 40 cms 25 Hillside ink and watercolour 28 x 38 cms
26 Orzes Church and Blue Mountains pastel 35 x 50 cms
27 Towards Argodo oil on canvas 42 x 56 cms
28 Italian Hilltop Town oil on canvas 74 x 61 cms
29 Seine Bridge 1951 ink and watercolour 34 x 52 cms
30 Tall Trees ink and watercolour 38 x 57 cms
31 Lone Fisherman oil on panel 33 x 41 cms
32 Ash Tree and the Stream, Bemersyde watercolour 29 x 39 cms
33 White Horse oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms
34 Majorca oil on canvas 91 x 71 cms
35 Village, Spain oil on panel 63 x 48 cms
36 Courtyard and Garden, Orzes ink and watercolour 37 x 57 cms
37 Sunbather, Positano ink, pencil and watercolour 27 x 22 cms
38 Abstract Trees watercolour 28 x 38 cms
39 Fairfield, South Africa oil on canvas 87 x 112 cms
40 Cathedral 1951 watercolour 39 x 58 cms
41 Dryburgh Abbey oil on canvas 86 x 111 cms
42 Through the Trees, Mediterranean pastel 45 x 30 cms
43 The Boat Man oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms
44 Seahouses 1963 oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms
45 Boat Form and Landscape c.1960 oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms
46 Plant Pot, Still Life ink and watercolour 38 x 28 cms
47 House through Trees 1967 oil on canvas 71 x 91 cms
48 The Gateheugh, Bemersyde ink, watercolour and pastel 38 x 57 cms
49 Bemersyde Moss in March oil on canvas 71.5 x 91 cms
Biography The Earl Haig 1918 1939-42 1942-45 1945-47
1947-2009
OBE, DL, MA, RSA (1918-2009)
Born in Kingston Hill, Educated at Stowe School and Christ Church, Oxford Served MEF with Royal Scots Greys POW Italy and Germany Camberwell School of Art, where he studied under William Johnstone, Pasmore, Gowing, Coldstream, and Rogers – during vacations worked with Paul Maze Lived and worked at Bemersyde near Melrose. His past appointments have included: President and National Chairman of the Royal British Legion Scotland, Earl Haig Fund (Scotland), and the Officers’ Association. He was also a Chairman of the Scottish National War Memorial and President of the Scottish Craft Centre. He was Chairman of the Art Committee of the Scottish Arts Council, a Royal Fine Art Commissioner for Scotland and a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland.
Selected Solo Exhibitions 1945/49/ 52/56/ The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 61/73/76/81/84/ 88/93/96/98/ 2001/08 1949/52/55 Redfern Gallery, London 1959 Leicester Gallery 1962 ’57 Gallery, Edinburgh 1965 Douglas and Foulis, Edinburgh 1966 O’Hana Gallery, London 1968 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh 1973 Haddington House 1974 Galerie Valtombreuse, Biarritz 1976 Lamp of Lothian Gallery, Haddington 1978 Gallerie Geiselgastieg, Munich 1978 Loomshop Gallery, Fife 1981 Sloane International Gallery, London 1986 Clarges Gallery, London 1987 Gallery 10, London 1990 Scottish Gallery, London 1994 Collyer Bristow, London 1994 Old Gala House, Galashiels 2003 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Selected Group Exhibitions Demarco Exhibition, Poland The Scottish Show, Oriel 31, Swansea and touring Wales Three Centuries of Scottish Paintings, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Oirtach Tas Exhibition, Dublin Municipal Gallery John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool Four Contemporary Scottish Painters, (Haig, Eardley, Philipson and Pulsford), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Graham Gallery, New York Three Points in Time, (Tom Scott, William Johnstone and Earl Haig), Mainhill Gallery, Ancrum Albemarle Gallery, London (RSA Members Exhibition), 1999 and 2000 Publications The Earl Haig, My Father’s Son, published 2000 by Pen and Sword Douglas Hall, Haig the Painter, published 2003 by Atelier Books, Edinburgh
Collections HM The Queen HRH The Duke of Edinburgh Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Arts Council of Great Britain Scottish Modern Arts Association Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal British Rail Royal Bank of Scotland Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh Imperial War Museum Scottish Arts Council Scott Hay Collection Ministry of Works Guinness PLC Edinburgh University Joseph Pulitzer Ettrick and Lauderdale District Council Collyer Bristow, London Flemings Bank Bank of Scotland Leicester, Banff and Argyll County Council Education Authorities and work in many other private collections in Britain and abroad.
Published by The Scottish Gallery for the exhibition Earl Haig, Memorial Exhibition 4 – 29 June 2011 ISBN 978-1-905146-54-3 Designed by kennethgray.co.uk Photography by John McKenzie Printed by Stewarts of Edinburgh All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.
Back cover: 50 Lightcox watercolour 18 x 25 cms