Modern Masters Festival Edition by The Scottish Gallery

MODERN MASTERS Festival Edition 2022

MODERN MASTERS Festival Edition 2022 28 July – 27 August 2022

Modern Masters Festival Edition Christina Jansen, The Scottish Gallery

Every year, when the Festival comes to town, our reserved city is transformed by the drama, excitement and spectrum of talent throughout the arts and we embrace the dolce vita. We have therefore put together a Festival edition of our Modern Masters series to mark the occasion and the emphasis is on colour, dramatic narratives, the natural world and a broad sweep of artists past and present. When the Edinburgh International Festival was launched in 1947 as a means of uniting the international community through shared creativity and the healing power of the arts, The Scottish Gallery responded to this extraordinary new calendar event by creating a specific, Festival programme of exhibitions showcasing the finest artists of the day. Today, our programme still revolves and evolves around the Festival, despite the digital age and in spite of world events. Our history of exhibiting artists, knowledge of art and Edinburgh has shaped and contributed to the arts and the wider art market in surprising ways – by giving lifelong support to artists and providing a bedrock of economic success in good times and bad, which is vital for confidence. Our dedication to the arts has endured for 180 years. In our Festival edition, which complements our contemporary programme, there are several artists who held Festival exhibitions with us, including John Bellany, Elizabeth Blackadder, Earl Haig, John Houston and Alexander Goudie. The Edinburgh School is

central to Scottish painting, artists who enjoyed successful painting careers, or were outstanding art educators, or both. The influence of the Edinburgh School throughout Scotland is central and core to understanding our modern Scottish art history. Dame Elizabeth Blackadder (1931–2021) is one of the greatest talents to have emerged from Edinburgh College of Art and is regarded as one of of Britain’s finest painters. Included are examples of her varied still life paintings as we build towards a major celebration of her life and work in 2023. John Bellany (1942–2013) is another former star graduate with an uncompromising vision, and we are delighted to include three fine examples from the height of his career. In the heart of this publication, we take a look the Edinburgh School and the classes of ’47 and ’51. It is equally important to include artists who we think have been overlooked or more accurately, overshadowed by a particular era and are worthy of reappraisal, this includes Mardi Barrie, James Cumming, Jack Knox, Ellen Malcolm and Sylvia von Hartmann, the latter having had a successful 80th birthday exhibition with The Gallery earlier this year. Finally, we have a triumph of painting in Still Life with Fruit and Flowers by George Leslie Hunter and a classic head study of Margaret Morris by J. D. Fergusson, continuing our long association with the Scottish Colourists. We hope you enjoy our Modern Masters Festival Edition.

The studio of Elizabeth Blackadder, Edinburgh, 2022. Photograph by The Scottish Gallery

Modern Masters Festival Edition 2022

William James Laidlaw Baillie Mardi Barrie John Bellany Dame Elizabeth Blackadder James Cumming J. D. Fergusson Ian Fleming Alexander Goudie Earl Haig John Houston George Leslie Hunter Jack Knox David McClure Ellen Malcolm James Morrison Denis Peploe

(1923–2011) (1930–2004) (1942–2013) (1931–2021) (1922–1991) (1874–1961) (1906–1994) (1933–2004) (1918–2009) (1930–2008) (1877–1931) (1936–2015) (1926–1998) (1923–2002) (1932–2020) (1914–1993)

6 8 10 20 32 34 36 38 46 48 56 60 62 64 66 68

Una Shanks Sylvia von Hartmann

(b.1940) (b.1942)

72 74

William James Laidlaw Baillie CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW, RGI (1923–2011)

William Baillie, always known as Bill, was a senior figure within the firmament of the Edinburgh School, a senor tutor at ECA and President of the RSA from 1990. In the 1960s he employed a rich impasto, low tones and dramatic whites and colour allying himself with Anne Redpath, Robin Philipson and John Houston. The motif deployed here of flowers arrayed on a surface he has titled Veranda Flowers suggesting an exterior, night-time setting evoking all the senses. He would subsequently travel extensively in the east, to India in particular, eventually preferring a hotter palette and glazed layers of paint and, like many others in the Edinburgh School, made a large commitment to the medium of watercolour. William Baillie, c.1981. Photograph by Jessie Ann Matthew

William James Laidlaw Baillie CBE, PPRSA, PPRSW, RGI (1923–2011) 1. Veranda Flowers, 1964 oil on canvas, 35 x 45 cm signed and dated lower right

Mardi Barrie RSW (1930–2004)

Mardi Barrie’s watercolour Small Shore of 1964 has all the qualities of her best, most distinctive work. She graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1953 but only had her first solo show at Douglas & Foulis Gallery in 1963. Her growing confidence led to a successful exhibiting career with The Scottish Gallery and the Thackeray in London. The influence of her tutors Gillies and Henderson Blyth are present in this cogent work, and her ability to paint the subject rather than draw it is already apparent, taking her towards an abstract realisation of landscape which evokes the spirit of a place as much as its topography. Mardi Barrie, c.1981. Photograph by Robert Mabon

Mardi Barrie RSW (1930–2004) 2. Small Shore, 1964 watercolour, 24 x 31.5 cm signed and dated lower right

John Bellany CBE, RA, HRSA (1942–2013)

John Bellany was born in 1942 in the Scottish fishing village of Port Seton. He attended Edinburgh College of Art from 1960 to 1965. His early work in Northern European Expressionist-Realist tradition allied to personal symbolism and iconography, often drawn from his family’s seafaring past. Bellany believed that art should show the realities of life and his art reflects both his personal triumphs as well as tragedies. His work is challenging and at times autobiographical as epitomised by a series of brutally unflinching self portraits produced in hospital following a liver transplant in 1988. The operation was a success and his first response was to call for paper and a pencil – the hospital provided sheets from the ECG printer – and he drew himself with life support tubes still attached. For the next twenty-eight years work poured out of the artist and his subject matter continued to address the same themes, but without the haunted, disturbing atmosphere that characterised the 1970s work. His palette also settled into a more primary, vibrant hue, the simple joy of life restored expressed in every mark. He had a major exhibition with The Scottish Galley in 1985.

The following images of John Bellany on this page and overleaf, depict the artist c.1985 in his flat in Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh, painting a portrait of the actor Russell Hunter. Photographs by Antonia Reeve

The Ptarmigan and Black Dog is a superb example of one of Bellany’s best known motifs. In a long and varied career the artist began, returned to and ended with the sea and with the villages and coastline of the Forth Estuary. The viscera from a fish-gutter’s table is presided over by undetermined creatures: bird, dog, fish, human. Across the open water, a wild barrier, is the livid tooth of the Bass Rock, home of gannets, seals and the ghosts of prisoners. Bellany was proud of his roots in Port Seton and in My Uncle Bill’s Boat, ‘The Estralita’, Port Seton, painted at the end of the last century, we have the powerful folk memory of an artist happy to return to his own past, his demons long laid to rest, the glorious palette of orange and blue an expression of optimism and contentment. The third work, Woman by the Sea, is a sophisticated interior, at once bar and studio. Is the seascape backdrop to the central woman a picture within a picture? Or is it a vision out towards a real sea? The woman’s familiar is a hen looking at us with the same unseeing eye, reflected in a polished surface, all our fates determined by the turn of a card, present in the foreground and also the image on the left of the composition.

John Bellany at work in his Edinburgh studio, c.1985. Photographs by Antonia Reeve

John Bellany CBE, RA, HRSA (1942–2013) 3. The Ptarmigan and Black Dog, c.1990 oil on canvas, 120 x 90 cm signed lower left; titled and signed verso PROVENANCE Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Private collection, Edinburgh

John Bellany CBE, RA, HRSA (1942–2013) 4. My Uncle Bill’s Boat, ‘The Estralita’, Port Seton, 1999 oil on canvas, 91.5 x 122 cm signed lower left EXHIBITED Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh PROVENANCE Private collection, Edinburgh

John Bellany CBE, RA, HRSA (1942–2013) 5. Woman by the Sea, c.1990 oil on canvas, 120 x 90 cm signed lower left PROVENANCE Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh; Private collection, Edinburgh

Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (1931–2021)

Elizabeth Blackadder painting in her Edinburgh studio, c.1985.

Details from the studio of Elizabeth Blackadder, 2022. Photographs by The Scottish Gallery

Dame Elizabeth Blackadder is perhaps best known for her detailed yet lyrical watercolours of flowers, ‘tabletop’ compositions using decorated tins and boxes.

Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (1931–2021) 6. Still Life with Violas, 1979 watercolour, 28 x 43 cm signed and dated lower left; inscribed with title verso PROVENANCE Private collection, Glasgow The Scottish Gallery will celebrate the life and work of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder in August 2023.

Blackadder visited Japan several times in the 1980s and ’90s which led to a series of watercolours using collage and gold leaf on handmade paper which enhanced her sophisticated placing of objects and reflected her interest in Emakimono and concern for form and structure.

Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (1931–2021) 7. Still Life with Persimmon, 1998 watercolour, collage and gold leaf on handmade paper, 50 x 61 cm signed and dated lower right EXHIBITED Elizabeth Blackadder, Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1998 PROVENANCE Private collection, London The Scottish Gallery will celebrate the life and work of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder in August 2023.

Blackadder’s orchids tend to speak for themselves. Their exoticism, taxonomical specificity, delicacy and presence seem sufficient to the artist, and they are often presented in their simplest form. A series of coloured etchings made after a visit to Malaysia in 1990 are the closest she comes to a Linnean approach, the Latin names carefully etched in mirror writing in the plate. Here the orchid is a gift, given to be painted no doubt and her subject is in its pot on a simple round table: leaves, stem, support and blooms all against a cool, beautifully modulated grey/blue screen.

Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (1931–2021) 8. Orchid, Phalaenopsis, c.2008 oil on canvas, 61 x 51 cm signed lower right EXHIBITED Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, 2008, cat. 2 PROVENANCE Private collection, France The Scottish Gallery will celebrate the life and work of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder in August 2023.

Blackadder’s Still Life with Tulips is typical of her late approach when her subject became pared down, allowing surprising juxtapositions of objects to correspond in delightful conversation. Here the jug of tulips has become unruly, the serpentine stems spread out like the hydra’s locks. Two nondescript pieces of fruit sit by, while the exotic gloves (are they a pair?) seem to reach out across the tabletop.

Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (1931–2021) 9. Still Life with Tulips, c.2010 oil on canvas, 60 x 90 cm signed lower left PROVENANCE Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh; Private collection, East Lothian The Scottish Gallery will celebrate the life and work of Dame Elizabeth Blackadder in August 2023.

James Cumming RSA, RSW (1922–1991)

Although of the Edinburgh School by training, through the 1940s, Fifer James Cumming existed apart from collective associations. His most distinctive work of the 1960s is rich in colour, where it is employed, but is essentially tonal. He also displays a mastery of line, surface and spatial concerns. In his choice of theme, he shows some residual sympathies with the work of Colquhoun and Macbryde, for example, as in the former’s Irish figure series of 1946 or the latter's still life, or with aspects of Scottie Wilson’s singular surrealism. Cumming spent fourteen months on the Isle of Lewis c.1950, which had a profound and lasting impact on his work, and his considered and meticulously wrought style is concerned with geometry, structure and abstraction of form. As with his contemporary Joan Eardley, and the younger Alan Fletcher, lamp forms and tabletops are a recurring motif. His later career was more concerned with natural/cellular forms, vibrant colour and more prominent geometry.

James Cumming RSA, RSW (1922–1991) 10. Table in the Barn, c.1965 oil on board, 91.5 x 68.5 cm signed lower right EXHIBITED Summer Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1997 PROVENANCE From the collection of the late Dr Angus Gibson, Glasgow

James Cumming, c.1980. Photograph by Jessie Ann Matthew

J. D. Fergusson RBA (1874–1961)

Leith-born Fergusson outlived the other Scottish Colourists by almost thirty years and remained prolific and ambitious throughout his life. During his early career, Fergusson was one of the most progressive artists in the British Isles and a direct conduit for continental advances of Les Fauves in particular. He first visited Paris in the 1890s, before residing there from 1907 to 1914. During this time, he was ideally placed to absorb the cutting edge of the European avant garde at first hand, without resorting to imitation or pastiche. He knew many of the key figures socially, including Picasso and Gertrude Stein, and exhibited extensively. In 1911 he was made a member of the Salon des Indépendants. Margaret Morris, whom he married in 1913, was Fergusson’s principal muse, but she was also an accomplished artist in her own right. She ran modern dance academies in France, England, Wales and Scotland. Fergusson became interested in the Celtic Revival movement, and the couple relocated to Glasgow (the most ‘Celtic’ city, in his opinion) in 1939. This strong and characteristic portrait of Meg is augmented by the thistle motif, which is most unusual.

Fergusson in his Paris studio, c.1910. © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council

J. D. Fergusson RBA (1874–1961) 11. Margaret Morris and Thistle, 1922 conté on paper, 15.5 x 11 cm PROVENANCE Margaret Morris; Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow; Private collection, West Lothian

Ian Fleming RSA, RSW, RWA, RGI (1906–1994)

Fleming was one of the most significant Scottish artists, and teachers, from the 1930s until his death in 1994. Born in Glasgow, he taught at the School of Art from 1931 where he influenced artists such as The Two Roberts, Colquhoun and Macbryde, whose double portrait he painted. He moved to Arbroath as Warden at Hospitalfield in 1948 and was then appointed Head of Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 1954. As such, his guidance and example across the generations is of national importance. He remained a prolific painter and printmaker, and his oeuvre was varied and progressive. Landscape painting was central to this and he accompanied his friend Willie Wilson to the East Neuk in the later 1930s, where both men sketched and etched extensively. Fleming returned to the picturesque fishing town of St Monans in 1946, whence this accomplished drawing might date. The surface of the watercolour sheet is covered with a wash and drawn over with a pen to provide animation. This was a common technique in 20th century Scottish painting, often deployed in a grisaille or severely limited palette. Fleming’s view across the rocks and bay to the harbour of St Monans is lively, done on the spot – the absence of local or expressive colour concentrates the attention on the reality and character of the place.

Ian Fleming RSA, RSW, RWA, RGI (1906–1994) 12. St Monans, c.1946 ink and wash, 36.5 x 52.5 cm titled and signed lower centre PROVENANCE Collection of Professor Bouchier

Ian Fleming, c.1988.

Alexander Goudie RP, RGI (1933–2004)

Gladioli were my grandmother’s favourite flowers. They grew in her garden in Brittany in the seaside town of Loctudy, where my father would paint for two months every summer. This bouquet is a tribute to to my grandmother’s garden. As it was probably painted in Goudie’s Glasgow studio, it also offers a sense of anticipation of those long days of outdoor painting in Brittany that my father looked forward to each year. Lachlan Goudie, 2022 In July 2021, The Gallery exhibited Alexander Goudie, An Artist’s Life, Act I, covering Alexander Goudie’s early beginnings and development: Glasgow, family and his love affair with Brittany. A further exhibition, Act II, will be unveiled in 2024 which looks at the later career of the artist and bigger theatrical projects.

Alexander Goudie RP, RGI (1933–2004) 13. Gladioli, 1985 gouache on paper, 96.5 x 73.5 cm signed lower right PROVENANCE Private collection, London

Alexander Goudie in his Tite Street studio, London, c.1983.

The Edinburgh School

Edinburgh College of Art School of Drawing, Painting, Design & Sculpture 1946–47

The Edinburgh School Christina Jansen, The Scottish Gallery

The Edinburgh School traditionally refers to a group of artists associated with Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art after the First World War. The same group were all represented, at various stages, by The Scottish Gallery. The core group consisted of Adam Bruce Thomson (1885–1976), Anne Redpath (1895–1965), Sir William Gillies (1898–1973), Sir William MacTaggart (1903–1981), John Maxwell (1905–1962) and Sir Robin Philipson (1916– 1992). These painters were bound together as students and tutors, by their memberships of

the Edinburgh-based Exhibition bodies: Royal Scottish Academy (RSA), Scottish Society of Artists (SSA) and The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW) and were foremost friends and colleagues who shared an intense interest in the development of art and ideas. The leitmotif was still life painting and the landscape of Scotland; their collective contribution represents a brand of painting which was unique to Scotland during a time when the School of Paris was at the heart of progressive, modernist thinking.

1946 – William Gillies in the Life Drawing Class (far left). Royal Scottish Academy Archives (Gillies Bequest)

1947 – Heads of School: Penelope Beaton sitting alongside William Gillies.

1951 – David McClure’s Graduation, Edinburgh College of Art.

1973 – Robin Philipson, President of the RSA, introducing HRH The Queen to Elizabeth Blackadder.

After the end of The War, with the birth of the Edinburgh Festival and availability of access to continental Europe and the activity of the Scottish Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain, an atmosphere of possibility, optimism and confidence existed for artists which found full expression in Edinburgh. Anne Redpath blazed a trail for women artists and proved a rare example of an elected artist who enjoyed a successful career at home and ‘down South’. William Gillies taught at Edinburgh College of Art from 1926–1966, eventually becoming one of the most influential Principals of his generation. His world view had been altered by his experience in the Great War and as such, he was quietly progressive, and advocated a steely discipline in his students – across the fine and applied arts. The school of artists were trained to embrace the ‘good habit’: the everyday daily studio practice – drawing, observing, painting on repeat. In our photographs of the School, Gillies sits beside fellow artist and Head of Junior School, Penelope Beaton (1886–1963) who greatly encouraged artists with their studies, many of whom, including Mary Nicol Neill Armour, credit her for giving them confidence in the field.

Many graduates from the college went on to teach in art schools across Scotland which led to further developments in art practice, particularly in Dundee and Aberdeen. In this Festival exhibition, we highlight some of the main strengths of the Edinburgh School. William Baillie (1923–2011), Mardi Barrie (1930– 2004), Elizabeth Blackadder (1931–2021), James Cumming (1922–1991), John Houston (1930–2008), David McClure (1926–1998) and Denis Peploe (1914–1993) represent the second generation of the Edinburgh School painters. If core attributes are to be identified then we see how drawing is used as a means of observation, to underpin or construct, and to produce lyrical works. The use of strong vibrant colours and enjoyment of the wide range of possibilities and effects that can be achieved through the exploration of the properties of any chosen medium is clear. We also include examples of works by the younger generation where common influences variously drawn from their mentors may be discerned such as John Bellany (1942–2013) or Sylvia von Hartmann (b.1942), where their education at Edinburgh College of Art enabled them to shape and form their art from a firm foundation.

2011 – Elizabeth Blackadder in her Edinburgh studio.

Edinburgh College of Art School of Drawing, Painting, Design & Sculpture, 1949–50

Earl Haig OBE, RSA (1918–2009)

Haig found all of his subjects within a small radius, never travelling much outside the Scottish Borders except to Venice. Solving the problem of the most painted place on earth was the most liberating experience in Haig’s painting life. As he painted the Lagoon or Grand Canal (such as in Campo Santa Sofia) he confronted something which had always been difficult for him: space and light at the heart of his picture. The blues – some deep, some icy – and ochres of the Italian paintings soon made their appearance in the Borders’ scenes as well. Altogether it was a stimulating time in Venice, which encouraged unusual subjects. Douglas Hall, Haig the Painter, 2003

Earl Haig greets HRH Prince Philip outside The Scottish Gallery, Castle Street, 1981, where he gave a personal tour of The Gallery and his exhibition.

Earl Haig OBE, RSA (1918–2009) 14. The Traghetto, Campo Santa Sofia, c.1985 oil on canvas, 71 x 91.5 cm signed lower right EXHIBITED Haig’s Venice, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1991, cat. 7 PROVENANCE Private collection, London

John Houston OBE, RSA, RSW, RGI (1930–2008)

John Houston by the Bass Rock, c.1980s. Photograph by Elizabeth Blackadder

Details from the studio of John Houston, 2022. Photographs by The Scottish Gallery

John Houston OBE, RSA, RSW, RGI (1930–2008)

For any artist deciding to paint sunflowers, the presence of Van Gogh is immediate. The anthropomorphic, round flower, darkening with exposure, turning to the light, is an expressionist symbol of energy and optimism but also of the brief passage of energy before decline and death. John Houston was a man who enjoyed the simple pleasures of friendship and good living, but his passions found their outlet in his work. Broadly painted, sometimes the struggle of the process of painting apparent in a thick impasto, other times a painting complete with a single, broad application of his pigment and medium, his work challenges us to respond in kind. The power of nature, the fragility and pity of the human condition, these are his subjects and Sunflowers is a rich, brilliant, tumultuous example.

John Houston OBE, RSA, RSW, RGI (1930–2008) 15. Sunflowers, 1965–66 oil on canvas, 101 x 75 cm signed and dated lower right PROVENANCE Mercury Gallery, London

John Houston, based in Edinburgh, was born in Buckhaven in Fife and was deeply familiar with the rural byways of the county which provided his most significant early landscape subjects: birds rising, suns setting, buildings shimmering, painted with an energy and rich impasto he carried through his professional life. This painting was exhibited at his second Edinburgh Festival exhibition with The Scottish Gallery in 1967.

John Houston OBE, RSA, RSW, RGI (1930–2008) 16. Sunset and Moor, c.1967 oil on canvas, 25 x 35.5 cm signed lower right EXHIBITED John Houston, Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1967 PROVENANCE Private collection, Edinburgh

The Scottish Colourist George Leslie Hunter (1877–1931)

George Leslie Hunter (1877–1931)

Marigolds, surely the most precocious member of the Daisy family, were a favourite subject of George Leslie Hunter. T. J. Honeyman, Hunter’s biographer and at the time a partner in the firm of Reid & Lefevre, recalled a visit to the Gallery by Clive Bell who completed a tour of inspection and pointed to a still life of marigolds in the corner: ‘That is the finest picture in the exhibition, and I don’t know who painted it.’ From this Honeyman determined to write his book Introducing Leslie Hunter, published by Faber in 1937. Hunter had his first show with Alexander Reid in Glasgow in 1916, a show well received and supported. He was living on his uncle’s farm near Larkhall, trying to get himself fit for the dreaded call-up. His still lifes from this time are fresh direct paintings which have something of the expressionist joy of Matisse rather than the analysis of Cubism. His palette is white based, his impasto rich and application confident as he emerges from his Dutch or Spanish influenced work to a place where his work chimes with Peploe and Cadell as one of the four Scottish Colourists.

George Leslie Hunter (1877–1931) 17. A Still Life with Fruit and Flowers, c.1922 oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm signed lower left PROVENANCE Private collection, London

George Leslie Hunter, c.1910.

Jack Knox RSA, RSW, RGI (1936–2015)

Jack Knox was born in Kirkintilloch and studied at Glasgow School of Art and the André Lhote Atelier, Paris, winning a string of prizes including the Carnegie Trust Travelling Scholarship, the Guthrie Award, several RSA awards, and the Scottish Arts Council Award. He later became Head of Drawing and Painting at The Glasgow School of Art after a senior lectureship at Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee. In the mid 1960s, Knox produced a studio series of canvases using mixed media and ‘stream of consciousness’ imagery, many of which were shown in his first solo exhibition with The Scottish Gallery in 1966. He had a major retrospective of his work in 1983 which was organised by the Scottish Arts Council and toured to Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Inverness and Dundee. Knox was a skilled draughtsman who produced a varied body of work in oil, pastel, acrylic and charcoal and The Palm Tree is a typical example from the mid 1980s where the artist deploys a faux naivety to make a sophisticated representation of his subject.

Jack Knox RSA, RSW, RGI (1936–2015) 18. The Palm Tree, c.1982 acrylic on paper, 26.5 x 31 cm signed lower left

Jack Knox, c.1980. Photograph by Robert Mabon

David McClure RSA, RSW (1926–1998)

Flowers and Black Jug is a deceptively simple, elegant example of the small and medium-sized still life works McClure painted in 1973–74. It is carefully composed using a small selection of ornaments, mainly gathered by the artist over the years from ‘junk shops’ particularly in Dundee from the late 1950s onward, and a wide variety of flowers from the family’s profusely stocked garden. This painting reflects the artist’s highly tuned drawing ability allied with careful handling of the paint, using plain, muted colours for the background. The objects are placed on a simple narrow shelf, seen from a more natural angle than found elsewhere in many of his tipped table still life work from the years either side of this, the latter treatment being a device much used by many artists of the Edinburgh School. Robin McClure, 2022 David McClure was born in Lochwinnoch in 1926. He enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art in 1947, from which point he was to be associated with a group of highly regarded young painters including James Cumming, William Baillie, John Houston, Elizabeth Blackadder and David Michie. His work sits solidly within that well documented tradition of 20th century Scottish Painting characterised by strength of colour and confident handling of paint.

David McClure’s Graduation, Edinburgh College of Art, 29th June 1951.

David McClure RSA, RSW (1926–1998) 19. Flowers and Black Jug, 1974 oil on canvas, 51 x 61 cm signed lower right; inscribed with title verso EXHIBITED David McClure, The Art of Picture Making, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2014, cat. 40

Ellen Malcolm RSA (1923–2002)

Ellen Malcolm was a sensitive and versatile painter, who exhibited a wide range of subjects from still life and portraiture through landscape and domestic scenes. Malcolm was born in Grangemouth in 1923 and was educated at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen under D. M. Sutherland and Robert Sivell. She lived at Invergowrie with her husband, the artist Gordon Cameron, and was friends with fellow artists and colleagues David McClure and Alberto Morrocco. Ellen Malcolm paints in a female lineage which includes Gwen John, Winifred Nicholson and her near contemporary Joan Eardley, treating her subject with an honesty which prefers simplicity and delicacy to an analysis of form and interior space. This is a particularly dextrous, joyful and serene example of Malcolm’s work which features her house and garden.

Ellen Malcolm RSA (1923–2002) 20. Wildflowers, c.1960 oil on canvas, 48.5 x 59 cm signed lower right

Ellen Malcolm and her husband Gordon Cameron, c.1975.

James Morrison RSA, RSW (1932–2020)

Fithie was one of Jim Morrison’s favourite places to paint from. It is a farm on the south side of the A934 immediately east of the junction with the road which runs between Arbroath and Brechin. In common with most of his paintings of Angus, it is less than ten miles from the painter’s home at Montrose. Here he was looking slight east of north down into the wide shallow valley of the river South Esk and on into the Grampian mountains. Clouds there tend to build over the hills and move roughly south and that is what is painted here, with the impression given of the weather moving towards the painter and on over his head. Centrally the subject here, and in very many of the paintings from this and other locations along this road, is space.

James Morrison painting in his Craigview studio, Angus, 1996.

Professor John Morrison, 2022

James Morrison RSA, RSW (1932–2020) 21. From Fithie, 8.iv.2000 oil on board, 89 x 150 cm signed and dated lower right PROVENANCE The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh; Private collection, Edinburgh

Denis Peploe RSA (1914–1993)

The White Cloth belongs to the mid 1950s when Peploe deployed a heavy impasto and rich sonorous palette. During these years he spent many months painting in Northern Cyprus, guest of his friends John Guthrie (grandson of ‘the boy’) and his wife Vivienne (who was the daughter of John Duncan). Guthrie was a surgeon and musician and they had emigrated to Cyprus in 1951, to Bellapais in the hills above Kyrenia. The earthenware jars on the table are Cypriot and the lilies no doubt from the beautiful gardens. Guy Peploe, 2022

Denis Peploe at the opening of his solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery, 1985.

Denis Peploe RSA (1914–1993) 22. The White Cloth, c.1953 oil on canvas, 71 x 60 cm signed lower left; inscribed with title verso

Sant Feliu de Guíxols is in the Girona province of Catalonia and today is an important port and tourist destination on the Costa Brava; the village rises above a tight bay with a harbour at the north end. When Denis Peploe visited in the 1950s it was a quiet fishing village. He has depicted the sun-bleached boats pulled onto the beach and more floating in the shallows. Perhaps it is a Sunday so all the boats are in and no one is about in the baking noonday heat; church bells might be peeling, calling the faithful to worship while the unusual, foreign painter has set up his easel on the beach and gone to work. Guy Peploe, 2022

Denis Peploe RSA (1914–1993) 23. Boats, Sant Feliu, c.1952 oil on board, 50 x 60 cm signed lower right EXHIBITED Paintings from the Artist’s Studio, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1984 PROVENANCE Private collection, Edinburgh

Una Shanks RSW (b.1940)

Una Shanks is a prodigiously talented artist whose richly worked, carefully crafted floral paintings spring from the same source as The Glasgow Four. Charles Rennie Macintosh and Margaret MacDonald in particular seem present in a shared inspiration in nature and patternmaking. She studied at The Glasgow School of Art and is a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. Her work is much sought after, but she has chosen to withdraw from exhibiting in recent years so for many her work will be a revelation: another brilliant woman artist ripe for rediscovery. She is married to fellow artist, Duncan Shanks. Summer Border is an intense, detailed tribute to her garden – the Shanks have been tending and enjoying the same tamed wilderness on the banks of the river Clyde for many decades.

Una Shanks RSW (b.1940) 24. Summer Border, 1990 ink and watercolour, 99 x 69 cm signed and dated lower right PROVENANCE Roger Billcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow

Una Shanks, c.1991.

Sylvia von Hartmann RSW (b.1942)

Sylvia von Hartmann was born near Hamburg in Germany. It was here that she started her training, which she completed at Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. She has lived in Edinburgh for many years, her work has been exhibited widely and is held in many prestigious collections. There is no part of Sylvia von Hartmann’s work, no part of how she is and how she lives her life, not even of the space in which she lives, that is ready-made or borrowed. She lives in a house in a secret courtyard. The house itself has become her work surface. The walls and floors are covered in her images and words; the objects in it are all made or decorated by her. Every surface records her response to life, her memories, her longings and enthusiasms. Sylvia’s house contains none of the usual distractions. There is no television, and she does not listen to the radio. Using gouache, watercolour and pigmented wax, she perfected a method original to her. This made it possible to achieve the surface for which she was searching. Her colours glow more like the windows of ancient cathedrals than like works on paper. Layers of paint and wax make it possible to cover and reveal, to hide and disclose. The surfaces made with this mixture of media have a huge vocabulary of mark making, from the finest line to the most transparent tissue of colour. Sometimes she may work on a motif for hours only to realise the whole image does not need it. Using wax, the motif may be buried. The subject of Sylvia von Hartmann’s work is her inner life, her soul. The images have as their subject her feeling for the world, her stories and secrets, her joys and her sorrows. Sylvia von Hartmann, May 2022. Photograph by Dennis Conaghan

They are inhabited by her people and herself, by her interiors and her experiences of nature. They contain stars and moons, birds and flowers, trees, fruits, bridges and hills. They depict her rooms, filled with her things, all gathered together to tell and to celebrate, to tell and endure and to keep secret. Extract from The Life and Work of Sylvia von Hartmann, A Cause for Celebration by Deborah Ravetz, c.2010 In May, The Gallery celebrated Sylvia von Hartmann’s 80th birthday with an exhibition dedicated to her wax paintings and printmaking. Sylvia is an instinctive artist whose practice explores everyday experience through close observation, and in doing so expresses the human heart. Sylvia von Hartmann was born in Hamburg, Germany; she studied at the Werkkunstschule, before attending Edinburgh College of Art (1963–66). She taught at Coventry College of Art but has spent most of her life as a practising artist in Scotland and was made a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1983. In 1982, The Scottish Gallery celebrated her wax paintings, drawings and prints from 1962–1982. In 1984 she exhibited Proverbs and Valentines which included decorated furniture and an embroidered patchwork bedspread. Public collections include: Scottish Arts Council; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; City Art Centre, Edinburgh; Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums.

Inside the Rhododendron House, Sylvia von Hartmann’s home and studio in the Canongate, Edinburgh, 2022. Photographs by The Scottish Gallery

Sylvia von Hartmann RSW (b.1942) 25. Jetzt und Einst, c.2002 wax tempera and pigment, 41.5 x 28.5 cm inscribed with title verso EXHIBITED RSA Exhibition, Dundee, 2002 PROVENANCE Private collection, Bathgate

Sylvia von Hartmann RSW (b.1942) 26. The Glass Purse, 2008 wax tempera, 39 x 44 cm signed and dated upper left

Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Modern Masters Festival Edition 2022 28 July – 27 August 2022 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/modernmasters ISBN: 978-1-912900-53-4 With thanks to Lachlan Goudie, Robin McClure, John Morrison and Guy Peploe for their personal picture notes. Produced by The Scottish Gallery Designed by Kenneth Gray Photography by John McKenzie Printed by Pureprint Group 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. All essays and picture notes copyright The Scottish Gallery.

Cover: Ellen Malcolm, Wildflowers, c.1960, oil on canvas, 48.5 x 59 cm (cat. 20) (detail) Inside front cover: John Bellany, Woman by the Sea, c.1990, oil on canvas, 120 x 90 cm (cat. 5) (detail) Right: Una Shanks, Summer Border, 1990, ink and watercolour, 99 x 69 cm (cat. 24) (detail)