HAIG EARL
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
HAIG
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
7 — 31 M A R C H 2 018
EARL
16 DUNDAS STREET EDINBURGH EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk scottish-gallery.co.uk
TH
ST
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WHERE HIS ROOTS LIE The Scottish Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition to mark the centenary of the birth of Lord Haig. Prince Philip, an old friend, noted in his foreword to Dawyck’s ninetieth birthday show ten years ago, that “A prison of war camp is not the most likely place to start a career as a painter, but it led to studies at Camberwell Art School, it was obviously more than a way of passing the time at the notorious Colditz Castle in Germany. His first show at The Scottish Gallery was of work done in captivity, but then he went on to exhibit regularly; this is his fifteenth.” Sadly all too soon we hosted his Memorial show, at the gallery in Edinburgh in 2010. These shows helped to secure his reputation as a significant artist, finally seeing off the taint of dilettantism, the sense that his aristocratic heritage somehow disbarred him from serious consideration. The Gallery was always a champion and our sixty five years of and representation can have few parallels in the annals of the art world. Dawyck Haig was born in 1918 as the Great War drew to its finish, fourth child of the Field Marshall, by then fifty-seven, a birthright which would form his public life and blight his private world as the fashion for revisionist history saw his father’s reputation traduced. At the top of the list of fourteen godparents at his baptism were the King and Queen. His affectionate autobiography “My Father’s Son” published in 2000 set out to tell a human story of his life up to 1950 and perhaps provide some catharsis. His sense of injury at the attacks on his father’s reputation as a war leader could not otherwise be expressed in a public forum and his adherence to public service through The British Legion and Earl Haig Fund as well as long stints as Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland and Scottish Arts Council speak of his sense of
duty as well as his natural enthusiasm and energy. His role of chair of the Scottish National War Memorial must have been poignant as a Borders laird, when every village memorialised its losses and farming had to adapt to the loss of labour. His early life at Bemersyde was happy. His mother and sisters doted on him and bouts of ill-health did not prevent him developing a passion for hunting (cat number 3) nor from continuing at Stowe School and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was also a luminary of the Bullingdon Club. Some juvenilia provides evidence of a precocious talent but when he signed up with the Greys and Royals at Redford Barracks, a life dedicated to art was unimaginable. In July 1942 he was in the Western Desert working as a liaison officer when his brigade was surrounded, his tank destroyed and he was reported killed; instead he had been captured. It was his capture and incarceration during the remainder of The War when he ended up as one of the prominente in Colditz, saved from Hitler’s direct command that they should be executed by the commandant who refused to commit murder, that provided the opportunity to recognise and practice his talent as a painter and draughtsman. Also in Colditz was John, 17th Baron Elphinstone, a nephew of Queen Elizabeth. In 1945 The Queen attended The Scottish Gallery for his first exhibition of the work made as a prisoner of war, renewing his Royal connections. He would never look back and painting was to be the driving passion of his life, but rather than return to the Borders the young Earl enrolled at Camberwell in 1945. His tutors included William Johnstone, Victor Pasmore, Lawrence Gowing and William Coldstream. He recognised that inspiration from senior figures in the avant-garde would allow him to grow rapidly as a serious artist. These various modernist
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Top: Bemersyde House, 1932, oil on canvas, 29 × 40 cms
Bottom Left: Bemersyde, Sir Walter Scott’s View, 1960
Bottom Right: Dawyck Haig with dog Peter, 21st December 1921
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Top: Earl Haig in Venice, 1976
Bottom Left: Earl Haig painting at Bemersyde, c.1979
Right: Buying pigments at the shop of Calle Luupe (colori da campioni), c.1981
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exemplars sustained him throughout his professional career, which was characterised by a selfconfidence that allowed him to absorb influences without deference or mimicry. The next two years were a time of intense study and painting which bore fruit in his second show with The Scottish Gallery in 1949, opened by Queen Elizabeth and from where she acquired a landscape for her collection. In these years he also made a friend of the Anglo-French painter Paul Maze and worked alongside him in the holidays creating a lifelong habit of painting en plein air impressionism. In all his work on paper and some of his best work in oils there is a happy tension between the immediacy of the act of painting (and urgency of what was before him) and his desire to capture the essential, abstract qualities of his subject. Throughout his life he valued the mutual exchange of ideas with other creative people and in Scotland he would admire Gillies, Redpath and Robin Philipson. The latter was a valued friend and brother artist and this relationship was the kind of open, equal exchange much cherished by Haig. His subject quickly became the landscape and the Euston Road influence was dominant, his tones low and paint dry and eked out. He showed in London with The Redfern Gallery and in Scotland with The Scottish Gallery where his third show in 1952 included one hundred and ten works in all media, reflecting the artist’s desire to show and make sales. Douglas Hall, Haig’s biographer, identifies the sixties as a difficult time for the painter and here is the longest gap between shows with The Gallery: 1961–1973. This period represents what the artist’s friend Tom Elder Dickson described as a conflict between “inborn romanticism and formal
structure” and in this period Haig let the freedom of his brush lead a form of self-expression: Boatform and landscape (cat number 11) belongs to c.1960 and combines the restrained palette of Euston Road, while River banks (cat number 13) of “ It was without the perhaps five or six years later, sees a distinct advance in use of expressive noise and traffic of colour allying him more with the tachist an industrial city expressionism of de Stael. Towards the end of the decade The Tweed at Mertoun yet with its peace (cat number 22) is a fine example of Hall’s and stillness there “brush-led self-expression”. His return to The Gallery represents a settlement after mingled the chatter a time of experiment and essentially his of throngs of people style and approach will not change again. His separation from his wife Adrienne, as they hurried with whom he brought up three chilover the bridges dren, led him to spend more time abroad, in Majorca and Positano in Italy in 1971 or manoeuvred and significantly in Venice from 1974. their craft through In the catalogue introduction to his 1976 show at The Gallery, Haig identifies three the canals.” visits and wrote; “I found I had fallen for the city in a big way. I loved its water and the reflection of its skies and architecture in the canals. It was without the noise and traffic of an industrial city yet with its peace and stillness there mingled the chatter of throngs of people as they hurried over the bridges or manoeuvred their craft through the canals.” He also gave insight into his practice of working in sketchbooks and watercolour pads with the possibility of developing the ideas in oils back at Bemersyde. Here he had two studios, one bright, lit from the north and generously proportioned; the other at the top of the original tower house, a high
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room with a minstrels’ gallery was more severe, a space fit for his work in oils which are characterised by strong compositional building blocks and rich earth colours. While his work on paper is informational, colour local rather than expressionist in character, his achievements in watercolour are a significant part of his legacy. All the first exhibited Venetian work in “ There is a knot was on paper and his nervous line, of tangled emotions, 1976 limited cross-hatching, and watercolour washes are highly distinctive, retaining a influences, aspirafresh, direct quality which endures and tions and longings is in contrast with the gravitas apparent at the heart of this in his studio work. It was of course in that he met his second wife, a extraordinary man. Venice cultured Venetian lady known to all as Fruzzy who became Countess Haig in It is an attitude 1981 and who added immeasurably to born of respect his happiness and richness of life in Italy and the Borders. In the city he was able and a sense of to move beyond the obvious charms of the continuity of the Salute and St Mark’s and made subject pictures of a wedding, the carnival stewardship.” or a procession of monks filing down a side canal. His wife’s summer home in The Dolomites, near Orzes began to provide abundant subject matter including the river Cordevole and its bridges, Towards Agordo of c.1997 (cat number 56) being a supreme example. The dense mixed forest and views to the dramatic peaks and ridges of the mountains, the terraces of the villa, banks and tumble of rocks in the river Gresal provided endless inspiration.
Extended painting trips were made to South Africa and to Lucerne in 1996 and to Lake Garda where he painted Catullus Villa at Sirmione, but he was always drawn back to the Borders and to Venice where his greatest contribution lies. Douglas Hall attempted to sum up the man and his place; “There is a knot of tangled emotions, influences, aspirations and longings at the heart of this extraordinary man. Among them is a degree of humility rare in a professional artist, manifest in his earliest accounts of himself as a painter. It is an attitude born of respect and a sense of the continuity of stewardship. It is respect for the past, whether in the shape of the techniques of the masters or in the shape of the best traditions of society. It is respect for the spiritual and intellectual life. Above all it is respect for the land where his roots lie and for the nature as it shows itself there.” Today, in his centenary year, we can look back on a life lived to the full and the legacy of a painter who was eventually, fully recognised in his lifetime. His retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and his election to membership of The Royal Scottish Academy were proper honours for a painter of remarkable dedication and professionalism, in the best sense. But today we can see more: a place in the first ranks of Modern British painters is deserved, his crossing and blurring of any division between Scottish and English painting sensibilities makes his contribution to art historically significant and useful, just as his vison of the observed world is distinctive and enduring. Guy Peploe, January 2018
Right: Self Portrait II, 1947, oil on canvas, 34 × 46 cms
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N˚ 1 FOOTBALL, SULMONA, 1942 WATERCOLOUR, 30 × 36 c m s
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N˚ 2 QUIET CORNER, SULMONA, 1942 WATERCOLOUR , 32 × 31 c m s
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N˚ 3 THAT TERRIBLE GRAFTON, 1935 WATERCOLOUR AND PEN ON PAPER, 22 × 35 c m s
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N˚ 4 PRISONERS, 1946 OIL ON CANVAS , 71 × 92 c m s
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N˚ 5 BEMERSYDE MOSS, 1949 OIL ON PANEL, 33 × 41 c m s
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N˚ 6 VIADUCT, 1951 OIL ON PANEL, 33 × 43 c m s
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N˚ 7 BRIDGE OVER THE TWEED, 1949 OIL ON PANEL, 32 × 41 c m s
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N˚ 8 EILDON HILLS, 1950 OIL ON PANEL, 19 × 24 c m s
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N˚ 9 EILDONS AT DUSK, 1960 OIL ON PANEL, 19 × 24 c m s
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N˚ 10 OPEN LANDSCAPE, 1960 OIL ON PANEL, 30 × 30 c m s
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N˚ 11 BOATFORM AND LANDSCAPE, 1960 OIL ON CANVAS, 71 × 91 c m s
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N˚ 12 SEAHOUSES, 1963 OIL ON CANVAS, 71 × 91 c m s
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N˚ 13 RIVER BANKS NO 16, 1965 OIL ON CANVAS BOARD, 46 × 56 c m s
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N˚ 14 LANDSCAPE STRUCTURES, 1965 OIL ON PANEL, 22 × 27 c m s
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N˚ 15 TREES IN RIVER BANK, 1969 OIL ON CANVAS, 25 × 35 c m s
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N˚ 16 POSITANO, 1968 OIL ON CANVAS, 76 × 101 c m s
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N˚ 17 PORTRAIT OF A MAN, 1967 OIL ON CANVAS, 51 × 35 c m s
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N˚ 18 UNTITLED, 1971 WATERCOLOUR, PEN AND INK, 26 × 35 c m s
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N˚ 19 SUNBATHER, POSITANO, 1968 INK, PENCIL AND WATERCOLOUR, 27 × 22 c m s
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N˚ 20 SIENA, 1969 INK ON PAPER, 31 × 46 c m s
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N˚ 21 BORDERS FOREST, 1970 PRINT, COLOUED ETCHING, 32 × 49 c m s
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N˚ 22 TWEED AT MERTOUN, 1968 OIL ON CANVAS, 71 × 91 c m s
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N˚ 23 POLLENZA, MAJORCA, 1977 OIL ON CANVAS, 33 × 41 c m s
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N˚ 24 DRYBURGH ABBEY, 1977 OIL ON CANVAS, 86 × 111 c m s
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N˚ 25 LEADERFOOT VIADUCT AND TWEED BRIDGE, 1975 PENCIL AND INK WASH, 26.5 × 37.5 c m s
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N˚ 26 NEAR NEWARK, 1975 INK AND WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 25 × 35 c m s
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N˚ 27 BRIDGE, EARLSTON II, 1980 INK AND WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 29.5 × 39.5 c m s
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N˚ 28 TWO HORSES GRAZING, 1981 PENCIL ON PAPER, 24.5 × 32.5 c m s
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N˚ 29 VIEW FROM WALLACE MONUMENT, BEMERSYDE, 1979 PASTEL, PEN AND INK, 28.5 × 38 c m s
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N˚ 30 THE BLACK HILL, 1980 INK AND WATECOLOUR ON PAPER, 38 × 56.5 c m s
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N˚ 31 SCUOLA DI SAN MARCO, VENICE, 1980 OIL ON CANVAS, 71 × 91 c m s
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N˚ 32 VENICE CARNIVAL, A STUDY, 1983 INK, PASTEL AND WATERCOLOUR, 26 × 33 c m s
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N˚ 33 LADIES OVER TABLE, 1985 INK, PASTELS AND WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 22 × 30 c m s
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N˚ 34 BELLUNESE LANDSCAPE, 1985 OIL ON PANEL,33 × 40.5 c m s
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N˚ 35 PLATFORM, 1985 OIL ON CANVAS, 73 × 91 c m s
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N˚ 36 TWEED VALLEY IN AUTUMN, 1985 OIL ON CANVAS, 61 × 91 c m s
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N˚ 37 SALUTE II, 1985 OIL ON CANVAS, 27 × 41 c m s
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N˚ 38 SUMMER IN VENICE, 1987 OIL ON BOARD, 33 × 41 c m s
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N˚ 39 STILL LIFE WITH CERAMICS, 1985 INK ON PAPER, 28 × 37 c m s
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N˚ 40 INTERIOR STILL LIFE, 1986 WATERCOLOUR AND PASTEL, 38 × 56.5 c m s
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N˚ 41 EILDONS HILLS FROM THE TWEED, 1988 WATERCOLOUR, PENCIL, PEN AND INK, 30.5 × 46.5 c m s
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N˚ 42 DOLOMITES, 1988 WATERCOLOUR, PEN AND INK, 38 × 55.5 c m s
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N˚ 43 BEMERSYDE GARDENS, 1990 INK AND WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 38.5 × 57 c m s
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N˚ 44 VIEW OF A HOUSE THROUGH TREES, ON THE TWEED, 1989 INK AND WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 29 × 39.5 c m s
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N˚ 45 ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER PARADE – STUDY, 2000 INK, PASTEL AND WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 29.5 × 42 c m s
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N˚ 46 HOUSE THROUGH TREES, 1992 INK AND WATERCOLOUR ON PAPER, 25.5 × 35 c m s
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N˚ 47 STREET SCENE, 1990 OIL ON CANVAS, 41 × 56 c m s
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N˚ 48 SANTA MARTA, 1998 OIL ON CANVAS, 40 × 56 c m s
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N˚ 49 CART SHED, LUSSAC, 1992 OIL ON CANVAS, 25 × 33 c m s
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N˚ 50 CHILDREN PLAYING, VILLA SAMATINI, ORZES, 1990 OIL ON CANVAS, 86 × 122 c m s
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N˚ 51 THE STREAM IN WINTER, 1992 OIL ON CANVAS, 61 × 102 c m s
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N˚ 52 TWEED RIVER, 1993 OIL ON BOARD, 35.5 × 45.5 c m s
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N˚ 53 THE BOATMAN ON VENICE LAGUNE, 1994 OIL ON CANVAS, 71 × 91 c m s
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N˚ 54 BRIDE AND GROOM, GIUDECCA, 1995 OIL ON CANVAS, 86 × 112 c m s
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N˚ 55 GATE WITH FIGURE, ORZES, 1996 OIL ON CANVAS, 112 × 86 c m s
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N˚ 56 TOWARDS AGORDO, 1997 OIL ON CANVAS, 42 × 56 c m s
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N˚ 57 TREE LINE ON THE TWEED, 1997 OIL ON PANEL, 20 × 25.5 c m s
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N˚ 58 WALNUT TREES, ORZES, 1998 OIL ON CANVAS, 34 × 44 c m s
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N˚ 59 NEAR ARSENALE, 2000 OIL ON CANVAS, 71 × 92 c m s
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N˚ 60 THROUGH THE TREES, ORZES, GARDEN, 2003 PASTEL, 45 × 30 c m s
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E ARL HAIG
THE
OBE, DL, MA, RSA (1918—2009 )
1918 Born in Kingston Hill, Educated at Stowe School and Christ Church, Oxford
1939 – 42 Served in Middle Eastern Forces with Royal Scots Greys
1942 – 45 Prisoner of War in Italy and Germany
1945 – 47 Camberwell School of Art, where he studied under William Johnstone, Pasmore, Gowing, Coldstream, and Rogers – during vacations worked with Paul Maze
1947 – 2009 Lived and worked at Bemersyde near Melrose Appointments have included: President and National Chairman of the Royal British Legion Scotland, Earl Haig Fund (Scotland), and the Officers’ Association. Chairman of the Scottish National War Memorial and President of the Scottish Craft Centre. 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.
Right: Earl Haig painting at Bemersyde, c.1958
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S E L EC T E D S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S
1978 Loomshop Gallery, Fife
2001/08
1981 Sloane International Gallery, London
1949/52/55 Redfern Gallery, London
Clarges Gallery, London
1959 Leicester Gallery
Gallery 10, London
1945/49/52/56 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 61/73/76/81/84 88/91/93/96/98
1962 ’57 Gallery, Edinburgh Douglas and Foulis, Edinburgh O’Hana Gallery, London 1968 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh Haddington House Galerie Valtombreuse, Biarritz 1976 Lamp of Lothian Gallery, Haddington 1978 Gallerie Geiselgastieg, Munich
1990 The Scottish Gallery, London 1994 Collyer Bristow, London 1994 Old Gala House, Galashiels 2003 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 2010 Memorial Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2014 Riverbanks: From Bemersyde to Venice, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2018 A Centenary Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
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P U B L I C AT I O N S The Earl Haig, My Father’s Son, published 2000 by Pen & Sword
Douglas Hall, Haig the Painter, published 2003 by Atelier Books, Edinburgh
C O L L EC T I O N S HM The Queen
The Fleming Collection
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Bank of Scotland
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Leicester, Banff and Argyll County
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, London Scottish Arts Council Scott Hay Collection Ministry of Works, London Guinness PLC, London
Council Education Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh The Argyll Collection Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council City of Edinburgh Council Government Art Collection, London Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, Edinburgh Art in Healthcare, Edinburgh Falconer Museum, Forres High Life Highland Exhibitions Unit, Inverness
University of Edinburgh
NHS Lothian (Edinburgh & Lothian Health Foundation)
Joseph Pulitzer
Hawick Museum, Wilton Lodge
Ettrick & Lauderdale District Council
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre
Collyer Bristow, London Authorities and work in many other private collections in Britain and abroad.
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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition:
C E N T E NAR Y E X H I B I T I O N 7 T H — 31 S T M A R C H 2 0 1 8 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/haig
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Scottish Gallery would like to thank Lady Haig for her help with the exhibition.
CREDITS ISBN: 978-1-910267-75-2 Designer: Sigrid Schmeisser Photography: John McKenzie Printer: J Thomson
Cover and Back cover artwork: N˚ 51, The Stream in Winter, 1992, oil on canvas, 61 × 102 cms
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.
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842 16 DUNDAS STREET • EDINBURGH EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 • mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk • scottish-gallery.co.uk