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MODERN MASTERS VI Edinburgh and London Edinburgh 6th – 23rd January 2017 London Art Fair 18th – 22nd January 2017 Stand 44, London Art Fair, Business Design Centre 52 Upper St, London, N1 0QH
16 Dundas Street • Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Cover: Victoria Crowe OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA(RCA), RSA, RSW (b.1945), Twilight, Deeper Shade 2015, oil on museum board, 68.5 x 99 cms(cat. 43) Endpapers: Duncan Shanks, RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1937), Moonlight, 1998, watercolour, 56 x 70.5 cms (detail), (cat. 42) Left: Joan Eardley RSA (1921-1963), Girl with Shopping Bag, c.1959, pen and ink, 47 x 35.5 cms (detail), (cat. 26)
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FOREWORD 2017 sees The Scottish Gallery reach its 175th anniversary. ‘Founded May 1842’ was the proud message reproduced on tens of thousands of framing labels and‘Contemporary Art since 1842’ is our current, pithy strap-line. At some point in our lives we are likely to be touched by a work of artandstruckbythewayitseemspersonal,meant. The origin of each work is in a studio, particular to its maker, but eventually the ripples go out, reaching beyond the life of the artist or first owner. Gathered together, as in our catalogue, these works can give art historical insight into a period of time but finally they are individual works, coming in and out of the light. We begin ourcelebratoryyearwiththisselection,beginning with William McTaggart, whose Impressionism begins the modern period in Scottish art and ending with Geoff Uglow who shows new work in The Gallery in February.The work will be available for sale on receipt of catalogue, will be viewable in Edinburgh in the New year but be the display at our stand at The London Art Fair at the Business Design Centre mid-month. GUY PEPLOE
MODERN
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This panel painted in the early twenties looks out from the White Strand towards Gribun Head and the entrance to Loch na Keil. The yacht at anchor with bare poles against the stiff north wind, lends interest and drama to the view, full of colour and natural energy.
1 Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell RSA, RSW (1883-1937) Mull from Iona with Boat Offshore, c.1925 oil on panel, 38 x 46 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
The Scottish Colourists, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, cat. 7 PROVENANCE
Private Collection, London
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This is the only known work by Cadell of the Island of Erraid, a mile or so down the coast of Mull from Iona. The subject is Davy Balfour bay and the view south towards the Paps of Jura. The bay derived its modern name from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Kidnapped when the eponymous hero is shipwrecked on Erraid, swimming ashore after his captor’s ship strikes the Torran Rocks. The author had spent some summer months on the island aged nineteen when the family engineering firm were beginning the construction of the Dubh Artach lighthouse with granite quarried on the island and taken out on barges, but perhaps he was dreaming of becoming a writer and the adventures ahead.
2 Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell RSA, RSW (1883-1937) Traigh Geal, Erraid, Argyll, c.1925 oil on panel, 36.5 x 45 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
The Scottish Colourists, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, cat. 9 PROVENANCE
Major David Russell, Rothes, Fife, thence by descent
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Fergusson refers to ‘the poet Roffy’ in his written memoire of life in Paris before WWI, Memories of Peploe (1945). Our drawing is a three part portrait, the figure a ‘cubist’ representation, alongside a cat and an inkwell, his familiar and his materials. Of the poet himself nothing is known: in these heady days of Parisian bohemia perhaps everyone was a poet, but Roffy certainly made an impression on Fergusson.
3 JD Fergusson RBA (1874-1961) Poet and Cat, Homage to the Poet Roffy, c.1909 ink brush drawing, 21 x 34 cms EXHIBITED
The Scottish Colourists in Paris, Galerie Francis Barlier, Paris and The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2003 PROVENANCE
Private collection, Edinburgh
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4 JD Fergusson RBA (1874-1961) La Parisienne, c.1910 contĂŠ drawing, 18.75 x 11.25 cms EXHIBITED
Aspects of Scottish Drawing, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2001 PROVENANCE
Private collection, Nottinghamshire
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Pourville is a beach resort flanked by cliffs just south of Dieppe. As Green Beach it was one of the objectives in the Dieppe Raid of 1942 and saw heavy allied casualties. In 1926 it would have been a quiet village and a likely stop-over for Fergusson and Meg travelling from London to the South of France, perhaps scouting for an alternative venue for a Margaret Morris dance retreat. Fergusson’s vigorous wash drawings display a typical strong, modern structure while being true to place.
5 JD Fergusson RBA (1874-1961) Hills, Pourville, c.1926 watercolour, 33 x 27 cms EXHIBITED
Annual Exhibition, St Andrews Fine Art, St Andrews, 1989, cat. 62 PROVENANCE
Private collection, Edinburgh
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6 JD Fergusson RBA (1874-1961) Street, Pourville, 1926 pencil and watercolour, 33 x 27 cms signed, titled and dated verso
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Autumn Showers is a small version of a painting made in 1889, and illustrated opposite page 120 of James Caw, William McTaggart: James Maclehose & Sons, 1917. It was made after the artist’s return to Broomieknowe from a productive summer in Southend in Kintyre. He had moved in the spring tohisnewhouseDeanparkinthevillagejustsevenmilessouth of Edinburgh. The move heralded a happy time and over the next twenty years his work was divided equally between sea and coastal work and landscape. His first biographer James Caw also identifies how from this time his work displays a ‘unified pictorial expression’wherein the human interest and thelandscapeareperfectlycomplementary.McTaggartknew every lane and byway through the fields around his home and walking the landscape quickly fed the new subject matter of rolling countryside. Our picture is dated 1891 so he must have revisited the subject (as he often did) three years later but the same three little girls hunker down by the dirt roadside, one examining a bird’s nest, while the landscape of fields rolls away and a sky, worthy of Constable, promises sunshine and showers.
7 William McTaggart RSA, RSW (1835-1910) Autumn Showers, 1891 oil on panel, 18 x 27 cms signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE
Private collection, Tomintoul
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Mouth of the Harbour is one of a group of panels Peploe made in Royan in the Summer of 1910 which can be considered as some of the most brilliant works of his career and alongside those of the same place made by his friend JD Fergusson as the significant contribution of British painting to the Fauve movement. When the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris mounted the Fauvism, l’Epreuve de Feu exhibition in 2000 a wall of Royan pictures by Peploe and Fergusson were included alongside the French Fauve painters Matisse, Derain and Vlaminck and groups from other countries including Scandinavia and the Low Countries and Goncharova and Larionov from Russia. The Mouth of the Harbour is quieter than some being an observation at dusk, without the daytime noise of yachts and people, but the same controlled vigour, decisive drawing and blue/orange palette is evident. Sam and Margaret saw the birth of their first son Willy here in August andtheexcitementandhappinessofthetimescommunicates itself in the fervent, intense work Peploe made over two months before the return to Paris.
8 SJ Peploe RSA (1871-1935) The Mouth of the Harbour, 1910 oil on board 26.2 x 35 cms signed lower left and verso EXHIBITED
The Scottish Colourists, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, cat. 24 PROVENANCE
Major Ion Harrison; Alex Reid & Lefevre, Glasgow; Fine Art Society, London and Glasgow, 1980
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9 SJ Peploe RSA (1871-1935) Lady with the dark eyes, c.1930 contĂŠ drawing, 21 x 18 cms signed lower right PROVENANCE
Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow; Private collection, Edinburgh
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POST-WAR
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This early sketchbook drawing dates from the artist’s time at Edinburgh College of Art. The high horizon may take influence from her tutor and friend William Gillies, but the nervous energy of line, and assured mark making are entirely Blackadder’s own.
10 Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1931) A Fife Farm near Burntisland, c.1952 ink on paper, 33 x 45 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
Elizabeth Blackadder, Decades, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, ex. cat. PROVENANCE
Private collection, Edinburgh
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Early Snow, Gala Water is the second of a group of works by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder which encapsulate her subtlety, range and originality.The spirit of Gillies seems palpable here, it is a location he painted many times and the two painters share the ability to see a subject where others would drive by oblivious: the high horizon, fall of the land, detail in the middle ground, all deliciously short of topographical representation; the relationship between the masses of field, hill, sky and snow are in perfect balance, the whole suffused with an ethereal, autumnal light.
Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1931) Early Snow, Gala Water, 1965 watercolour, 68 x 102 cms signed and dated lower right EXHIBITED
Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Edinburgh, c.1965 PROVENANCE
Private collection, Scottish Borders
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Painted two years after the previous work Figures on a Balcony has many shared qualities. The high horizon, areas of subtle tone and enlivening marks are all shared characteristics but in this work the enigmatic holds sway, the Pop influence is apparent. Are the figures nude? Is the grey mass centre left part of the balcony or part of the landscape? The motif remains elusive; a transitory moment has been captured.
11 Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1931) Figures on a Balcony, 1967 oil on board, 34 x 49 cms signed and dated lower left
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Easter Still Life is made of a collaged sheet of textured, Japanese paper which forms the ‘table top’ for the still life. Two patterned Easter eggs are the only apparent reference to the title of the work, while the dominant motif is the arrow thrusting in from the right side of the composition. It is an early example of what will become her preeminent subject: the still life on which her objects float, flat or solid, standing outorrecedingbutalwaysremainingenigmatic,betweenreal and symbolic.
12 Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1931) Easter Still Life, 1972 watercolour, 68.5 x 103 cms signed and dated lower left EXHIBITED
EdinburghTen 30,The Scottish Arts Council, travelling exhibition, 1975; Elizabeth Blackadder exhibition,The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1972, cat.14; Edinburgh Festival Exhibition, Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, 2000
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In our fifth work by Blackadder another seven years has passed and we are looking at another typical subject in watercolour, the floral still life. Now in her home in the Grange the bounty of her garden is put to good use through the seasons; tulips, irises and anemones. Here the three vases and their occupants, some beginning to wilt and fall, are at once in tumult and balance. Her watercolour still life helped make her reputation through consistent success at the Royal Academy where the addition of the occasional cat created some of her most popular and enduring images.
13 Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1931) Three Vases of Flowers, 1979 watercolour, 51 x 64 cms signed and dated lower right PROVENANCE
Private collection, Northumberland
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Robert Henderson Blyth, known universally as Bobby Blyth, was a painter’s painter, much admired and warmly remembered by his fellow professionals. In the post-War years he shared with his mentor William Gillies a link with English neo-romanticism, to Piper, John Nash and Christopher Wood. In the later sixties however he moved on to a more overtly modern vision, strongly abstract, richly worked relating to the Tachists, closer to MacTaggart now than Gillies. His subject is drawn from the Aberdeenshire countryside but is less specific and as much about the paint as the view.
14 Robert Henderson Blyth RSA, RSW (1919-1970) Landscape, c.1968 oil on board, 61 x 51 cms signed lower left
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William Burns was an exact contemporary of Joan Eardley, attending The Glasgow School of Art and then Hospitalfield in Arbroath. He shared with Eardley the painterly skills and picture making instinct which characterise both artists’work and they were co-exhibitors at The Scottish Gallery Festival Exhibition in 1955. Much of Burns’later work is inspired from an aerial view of the coastal landscape. His life was lost aged just fifty-one when his small plane crashed in fog. Patterns viewed from above and the subject of The Sea Wall is not so different: the planes of wall, and gables of Footdee cottages make a strong abstract pattern. It is a subject favoured by Ian Fleming, another Glaswegian who made his life up in Aberdeen where Burns was Principal Lecturer in Art at Aberdeen College of Education.
15 William Burns RSA, RSW, RI (1921-1972) The Sea Wall, c.1960 oil on board, 70 x 105 cms signed and titled on verso
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We have dated this work to the late forties and are still trying to establish the location, but it is likely to have been painted at the time of his Hospitalfield residences, the last of which was in 1949. The location certainly has the feel of the North East and already we can see evidence of the painter’s concerns with pattern, structure and a sense of place. The influence of Ian Fleming is clear: he had succeeded James Cowie as Warden of the Patrick Allan-Fraser school of art in 1948 and would have encouraged a more painterly approach.
16 William Burns RSA, RSW, RI (1921-1972) A Terrace, 1948 oil on canvas, 76 x 101.5 cms signed lower right PROVENANCE
Private Collection
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17 William Crosbie (1915-1999) Abstract Still Life, c.1970 oil on board, 111.7 x 116.8 cms signed lower left PROVENANCE
The Artist, thence by descent
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Plockton captured Bruce Thomson’s attention after the Second World War and became the source of some of his best known work. Sailing boats in rapidly changing weather conditions provided the artist with a favourite subject. Here, the artist has ventured over to the little island on the sea front at low tide to look back at the village promontory, providing a safe anchorage for yachts.
18 Adam Bruce Thomson OBE, RSA, PPRSW (1885-1976) Overlooking Plockton, c.1946 watercolour, 45 x 62 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1952, cat. 659; Adam Bruce Thompson – Painting the Century, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2013 PROVENANCE
Ewan Mundy Fine Art, Glasgow
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Wilson was very much a part of the ‘Edinburgh School’ many of whom emphasised the importance of works on paper. The technical influence of his contemporaries and friends, William Gillies and Anne Redpath can be seen in this bold pen ink and watercolour depicting the Grand Canal, gondolas and pleasure boats. Wilson is known for three distinct areas of production: his brilliant early etchings and engravings, his fresh, breezy watercolours and a significant body of stained-glass design.
19 William Wilson OBE, RSA, RSW (1905-1972) Venice, c.1953 watercolour, 32 x 48 cms signed lower right
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Each new landscape and culture that Redpath encountered changed and informed not only the landscapes and architectural subjects she produced but also everything she painted thereafter including her still lifes. In Corsica in 1954 and in Gran Canaria in 1959 she experienced harsh sunbleached hillsides where the resulting paintings the houses appear as though they grow out of the hills, giving them a ‘buttress-likepresence’.Simultaneouslyshesuggestserosion, decay and permanence. Blue Sky on a Grey Day, written by Patrick Bourne for Anne Redpath, Fifty, The Scottish Gallery, July 2015, page 7
20 Anne Redpath OBE, RSA, ARA, RWA (1895-1965) Pink House, Corsica, c.1954 oil on board, 50.6 x 61 cms signed lower left EXHIBITED
A Dozen Paintings and Works on Paper, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, cat. 5 PROVENANCE
Melrose’s Tea c.1990, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
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21 Anne Redpath OBE, RSA, ARA, RWA (1895-1965) The Victorian Tray, c.1959 oil on board, 45.5 x 61 cms signed lower left EXHIBITED
Anne Redpath, Centenary Exhibition, Portland Gallery, London, 1995, cat. 33; Cyril Gerber Fine Art Glasgow; A Dozen Paintings and Works on Paper, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, ex cat. PROVENANCE
Lefevre Gallery, London; Private Collection, Edinburgh
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McClure’s freely painted and powerfully coloured still life of 1962 places him immediately in the context of the ‘Edinburgh School’ and in particular demonstrates the influence of his friend Anne Redpath. Visits to her London Street address for tea became an official salon and her generosity to the younger painters (including of course her son David Michie) was characteristic. In 1961 she painted in Fife with McClure and Hamish Reid and the Bretton jug in this composition is likely to be the same as in many of Redpath still life compositions.
22 David McClure RSA, RSW (1926-1998) Flowers and Bird, 1962 oil on board, 49 x 36 cms signed lower left EXHIBITED
David McClure, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1962, cat. 19 PROVENANCE
Private Collection
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23 David McClure RSA, RSW (1926-1998) Flowers on a Green Ground, 1968 pastel, 12 x 13.5 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
David McClure, Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1969 PROVENANCE
Private Collection
This interior is of David McClure’s top floor flat in the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh where he lived with his wife Joyce, and son Robin until 1957 when he was recruited by Alberto Morrocco to the staff of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee.
24 David McClure RSA, RSW (1926-1998) Lawnmarket Interior, Edinburgh, 1954 gouache, 58 x 31 cms signed and dated top left PROVENANCE
The Artist, thence by descent
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The mountains to the north of Glen Torridon are amongst the most dramatic in Scotland; Liathach, Beinn Eigh and Beinn Alligin. Peploe will have driven north from Plockton on the north side of Loch Caron, where he stayed with Torquil Nicolson at the Old Manse and then down Glen Torridon towards the head of Upper Loch Torridon. He found his subject looking back to the north-west, into the hills rising dramatically from the loch side. To capture the drama and stature of these most ancient mountains, he has used brushes and knife, a rich impasto and a sonorous mineral palette.
25 Denis Peploe RSA (1914-1993) Glen Torridon, c.1950 oil on canvas, 62 x 75 cms signed lower left EXHIBITED
The Stone Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 1962
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We will be mounting the exhibition Joan Eardley, Restless Talent in February 2017. 26 Joan Eardley RSA (1921-1963) Girl with Shopping Bag, c.1959 pen and ink, 47 x 35.5 cms EXHIBITED
Christmas Exhibition, Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh, 1967, cat. 58 PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Edinburgh
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Knox drew and painted several images of mountain goats, includingamonumentalcanvasofagoatfallingperpendicular down a cliff. He was also a regular visitor to Arran whose highest peak is of course Goat Fell, which is likely to have led to the subject. A master of the pastel medium Knox’s images of the sea and mountain, with gannets, mists, sunsets and beasts form a significant part of his later output.
27 Jack Knox RSA, RSW, RGI, HFRIA (1936-2015) In the High Hills, 1987 pastel, 23 x 30 cms signed lower right PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Edinburgh
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28 John Houston OBE, RSA, RSW, RGI (1930-2008) Bathers and Breaking Wave, 1983 oil on canvas, 39 x 44 cms signed and dated lower left PROVENANCE
Private Collection
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29 John Houston OBE, RSA, RSW, RGI (1930-2008) Dark Aviary, c.1967 pastel and watercolour, 12.5 x 17 cms signed lower middle EXHIBITED
Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1967, cat. 83
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The nude in an interior is one of Philipson’s richest themes.The subjects range from exotic figures and lovers, to the languor of the bordellos. Although Philipson had a commitment to challenging subject matter, this was always offset by his dedication to the decorative demands of each painting, a sufficient subject in itself.This year a new monograph of the artist will be published, written by Dr. Elizabeth Cumming. 30 Robin Philipson PPRSA, RA, HRA, RSW, RGI (1916-1992) Towards The Night, 1970 watercolour, 17 x 17 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1970, cat. 31; Robin Philipson Retrospective, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, 1989, cat. 100, titled ‘Companions’; Robin Philipson, 100, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, cat. 16 PROVENANCE
Collection of Mr and Mrs Rankin, Edinburgh
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31 Robin Philipson PPRSA, RA, HRA, RSW, RGI (1916-1992) Conversation, 1970 watercolour, 33 x 35 cms signed and dated lower left EXHIBITED
Festival Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1970, cat. 41 PROVENANCE
Private collection, London
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Gillies’ subject is the Gala Water beneath Stow with rising hillside beyond, its fields and copses climbing to a high horizon and a typically dark sky. As with many of Gillies’ oils from the 1950s, his interest is in capturing a certain time and place, reducing the landscape in front of him to patterns of flat colour, without making the full leap into abstraction. This significant oil is one of the finest to come onto the market in recent years and places Gillies amongst his English contemporaries at the heart of British Modernism.
32 William Gillies CBE, RSA, RA, PPRSW (1898-1973) Landscape below Stow, c.1950s oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
Ground Floor Gallery Opening, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1981; A Dozen Paintings and Works on Paper, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, ex cat. PROVENANCE
Private collection, Edinburgh
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Yorkston Road lies just south ofTemple, snaking along the north bank of the Roseberry Reservoir. Gillies found endless subject matter in the area around his home in Midlothian. In The Yorkston Road, Temple we see Gillies stopped by the side of the road and looking south, with the Lammermuir Hills visible under a rising sun. The ink line, which will have been added first is fluid and expressive, with the watercolour added subsequently. Yorkston Road (cat. 34) is from an earlier period. In this gestural watercolour Gillies employs the brush, wet on wet with a minimum of drawing, capturing the heavy sky before a summer downpour. 33 William Gillies CBE, RSA, RA, PPRSW (1898-1973) The Yorkston Road, Temple, 1948 pen and watercolour, 23 x 29.5 cms signed lower left EXHIBITED
A Dozen Paintings and Works on Paper, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, ex cat.
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34 William Gillies CBE, RSA, RA, PPRSW (1898-1973) Yorkston Road, c.1940 watercolour, 57 x 78 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
The Scottish Colourists and Contemporary, 19th and 20th Century Scottish Painters, The Scottish Gallery and Ewan Mundy, 27 Cork Street, London, 2003 PROVENANCE
Private collection, London
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Alberto Morrocco is a key figure in 20th century Scottish painting. Born in Aberdeen in December 1917, the son of Italian immigrants, Morrocco gained entrance to Gray’s School of Art aged 14. Head of Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art from 1950 until 1982, Morrocco’s was a life dedicated to art. A renowned draughtsman and portrait painter, he is best known today for his still life subjects and colourful figurative paintings. Morocco first exhibited with The Scottish Gallery in 1957, and then frequently throughout his life. In August 2017, The Gallery will mount a celebratory centenary exhibition.
35 Alberto Morrocco RSA, RSW (1917-1998) Blue Boat, Tayport, 1975 oil on board, 34 x 46 cms signed and dated lower left
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Like the aged T’ang poets or zen calligraphers (Hitsuzendo school) whose best works happened later in life, WJ painted in a prepared state of intense concentration, one likened to no-mind (mu-shin) in the Asiatic traditions. Allan Harkness, 2012
William Johnstone was an abstract expressionist painter and writer from the Scottish Borders. Johnstone was also a pioneering art educator who was the Principal of Central School of Arts and Crafts, London from 1947–1960. Johnstone had his first solo exhibition with The Scottish Gallery in 1934 and in 2012 we produced the most detailed biography on his work to date (Marchlands) and several works were acquired for public collections. William Johnstone remains as one of the most enigmatic artists from the last century. Green and Black was painted from his studio in Crailing and is a typical example of his work from the 1970’s chiming with European Tachisme.
M C-S: “How long did it take you to do that?” WJ: “Only ten minutes, I suppose, but it’s taken me seventy years of looking.” The Studio of the late Dr. William Johnstone, OBE. Christie’s, Glasgow, 1990, foreword by Sir Michael Culme-Seymour.
36 William Johnstone OBE (1897-1981) Green and Black, c.1975 ink brush drawing, 76 x 57 cms signed lower left
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CONTEMPORARY
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The architectural interior subject is a test of an artist’s ability to organise the composition, to decide what is essential and what is extraneous. It has to be true to the place both architecturally and atmospherically. Sandie Gardner’s Café Royal, Edinburgh, one of the most familiar watering holes in the capital, remains painterly while satisfying all the requirements of evocation.
37 Alexandra Gardner (b.1945) Café Royal, Edinburgh, 2002 oil on canvas, 63.5 x 76 cms signed lower left EXHIBITED
New Work, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2002
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The ideas behind the label paintings refer toVelázquez desire to have a more valued position within the Spanish court. Painters and Sculptors were categorised alongside tailors and milliners. Velázquez felt he should have a much higher position: this he did obtain, but this attainment of a higher position within the Court, ultimately led to much less painting time for him. Velázquez became a diplomat and travelled Europe to build Philip’s royal collection. The portrait is of the young Philip IV of Spain. The labels are an image that visualise Velázquez need to be labelled as something more, but ultimately the necessary society labelling, in my mind trapped him. The labels and the portraits merge to comment on society’s need for structure and labels. Derrick Guild, December 2016 We are delighted to announce that Derrick Guild will be the subject of a major exhibition in October 2017.
Derrick Guild RSA (b.1963) Label Philip (after Velázquez), 2014 oil on linen, 71 x 56 cms
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38 Duncan Shanks RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1937) Downpour, c.2014 mixed media on paper, 37 x 38 cms
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We are delighted to announce that Duncan Shanks will be the subject of a major solo show in our 175th anniversary month, May 2017. 39 Duncan Shanks RSA, RSW, RGI (b.1937) Moonlight, 1998 watercolour, 56 x 70.5 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
Duncan Shanks Works on Paper, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2015
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Tourists and a Very Wet Day is one of a series of observational‘sketch book’works made in Venice in 2010. The couple seem to be on a Vaporetto waiting for“La prossima fermata”, umbrella at the ready, an elegant façade faintly reflected in the window behind. 40 Victoria Crowe OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA(RCA), RSA, RSW (b.1945) Tourists and a Very Wet Day, 2010 mixed media and intaglio, 19 x 24 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
Victoria Crowe, Reflection, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2010, ex cat. PROVENANCE
Private collection, Edinburgh
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This painting is one of a small group of night time still lifes. The dim interior is lit with a suffusion of moonlight giving a delicate presence to the blooms and making a dark, cool pattern of the leaves. 41 Victoria Crowe OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA(RCA), RSA, RSW (b.1945) Midnight Hypnotic, c.1995 oil on board, 59 x 49.5 cms signed lower right PROVENANCE
Carnegie Dunfermline Trust, Abbey Park Place, Dunfermline, Bought Oct, 1996
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42 Victoria Crowe OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA(RCA), RSA, RSW (b.1945) Shifting Evening Light, 2015 oil and mixed media on paper, 25.5 x 48 cms signed lower right EXHIBITED
Victoria Crowe, Light on the Landscape, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, cat. 17 PROVENANCE
The Artist
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This painting is from a collection of work which Crowe produced as part of her residency of Dumfries House in 2015. Her subjects were found whilst walking the grounds at dusk, contemplating the trees through the moonlight and experiencing the turning season.
43 Victoria Crowe OBE, DHC, FRSE, MA(RCA), RSA, RSW (b.1945) Twilight, Deeper Shade, 2015 oil on museum board, 68.5 x 99 cms EXHIBITED
Victoria Crowe, Light on the Landscape, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2016, cat. 14 PROVENANCE
The Artist
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After graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 2000, Geoff Uglow accepted a studio from Edinburgh City Council that looked down from the Old City Observatory on Calton Hill down on to the city. These works from 2014 capture the same view of Princes Street and the Burns Monument at different times of day: a spontaneous reaction to the city in changing light and weather.Thick impasto heightens the momentary quality of the subject.The raw energy of Uglow’s workmanship is conveyed in the heavy, swirling daubs of paint that hang off the canvas as if he has just lifted his brush even after the paint has dried. Geoff Uglow will be exhibiting with The Gallery in February 2017.
44 Geoff Uglow (b.1978) Saltire, 2014 oil on board, 51 x 61 cms EXHIBITED
RSA Open Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2016
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45 Geoff Uglow (b.1978) Union Jack, 2014 oil on board, 51 x 61 cms EXHIBITED
RSA Open Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 2016
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SELL WITH US
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THE SCOTTISH GALLERY offers a comprehensive and discreet service to those seeking advice on valuation or wishing to sell works of art. Sometimes it will be our advice to seek an appraisal with an auctioneer but these days the costs of conducting business at auction, particularly for a potential vendor, are such that The Gallery option is much more attractive in several ways. It has always been the case that auction, where there is no upper limit for what someone might pay for your property, is attractive to the optimist. However the same cheery attitude can be met with failure quite beyond the auctioneers’ control: the business must be conducted at a particular time on a particular day which might be the same day as a stock market crash or a severe weather event, ensuring a bad day at the theatre of the rostrum. A picture selling on the reserve might be disappointing; a lot failing to sell at all‘bought in’would be reoffered in a few months at around half the first reserve and is effectively burned for the next audience. As to costs the seller will be met with a few percentage points for insurance, cataloguing charges, a 10-15% charge for the sales service and then of course another 25% will be charged to the buyer (as well as artist resale rights at 4% of the hammer price where appropriate) giving a spread between what is paid by the buyer and what is remitted to the vendor of around 40%. This all in the full glare of publicity. How much better to have an entirely private and discreet arrangement with The Scottish Gallery who will take every consideration into account and charge considerably less for so doing. Do get in touch for a free appraisal and advice from Guy Peploe, Tommy Zyw (Fine Art) and Christina Jansen (Objects), who between them have over sixty years of experience of the market to draw on.
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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition MODERN MASTERS VI EDINBURGH 6th – 23rd January 2017 LONDON 18th – 22nd January 2017 Works will be viewable in Edinburgh from 6th January 2017 but will be on display at our stand at The London Art Fair at the Business Design Centre from the 18th – 22nd January. Please contact The Gallery for more information. Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/modernmasters ISBN: 978 1 910267 52 3 Designed by www.kennethgray.co.uk Photography by John McKenzie Printed by Barr Colour Printers 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.
16 Dundas Street • Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Right: JD Fergusson RBA (1874-1961), Hills, Pourville, c.1922, watercolour, 33 x 27 cms (detail), (cat. 5) Endpapers: William Burns, RSA, RSW, RI (1921-1972), The Sea Wall, c.1960, oil on board, 70 x 105 cms (detail), (cat. 15)