With over 60,000 objects - most of them paintings, drawings, prints, photographs or sculptures - the National Galleries of Scotland has the world’s most extensive holdings of Scottish art. This lavish coffee-table paperback features 100 pieces (mostly paintings) from those vast collections.
Chosen with a curator’s eye to tell the sweeping story of Scottish art, many of these paintings are iconic and recognizable (like the familiar and oft reproduced bust of Robert Burns painted in 1787 by Alexander Nasmith, or Sir Henry Raeburn’s astonishing and precise “Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddington Loch” from around 1795, or Raeburn’s equally classic 1822 portrait of Sir Walter Scott). Others will be new to even avid students of art, with the selection divided into seven chronological chunks (1570-1700, 1701-1800, etc.), and each painting given its own background and context. What emerges is a compelling visual archive of how artists in Scotland have remained in conversation with the larger trends in Western art, whether it be the influence of literature (scenes related to Homer, Shakespeare or Walter Scott), or the obvious influence of stylistic movements like Impressionism, the Pre-Raphaelites or Surrealism. Equal attention is paid to uniquely Scottish developments, like the Glasgow School of painters.
Standouts can be picked almost at random, including the 1595 portrait of Esther Inglis, a calligrapher and designer depicted in an imposing tall hat, an ornate ruff collar and heavily embroidered bodice. Or jump forward 350 years or so to Sir Edwin Landseer’s “The Monarch of the Glen,” a familiar and technically remarkable depiction of a stately red deer stag rendered in grand detail by one of the Victorian period’s most renowned animal painters. Jump forward another 150 years or so to Carol Rhodes’ 2006 nearly abstract landscape “Industrial Belt.” Students and admirers of Scottish culture will find much to appreciate in this opulent art book. 179 page large format paperback.
