EDINBURGH.- Some of the finest works by many of Scotland's most celebrated artists, including Allan Ramsay, Sir David Wilkie and the Glasgow Boys, went on display in the first exhibition dedicated to Scottish art in the
Royal Collection. From grand State portraits to miniatures of royal children, romantic Highland scenes to exotic views of the Continent, the exhibition includes more than 80 works of art acquired by monarchs, from George III to Her Majesty The Queen, many on display for the first time. Scottish Artists 1750 1900: From Caledonia to the Continent is at The Queen's Gallery, Edinburgh from Thursday, 6 August, as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival.
Scottish artists have portrayed generations of British monarchs. Allan Ramsay was the first Scot to be appointed to the royal position of Principal Painter in Ordinary and was commissioned to paint George III's State portrait following the King's accession in 1760. Fifteen years earlier Charles Edward Stuart had seized the city of Edinburgh for the Jacobites and set up court at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. A striking painting by John Pettie, Bonnie Prince Charlie Entering the Ballroom at Holyroodhouse, 18912, shows the Prince emerging from the shadows, bedecked in Stuart tartan and flanked by his loyal chiefs.
In 1822 George IV became the first British reigning monarch to visit Scotland in nearly 200 years. Scotland's most successful artist of the early 19th century, Sir David Wilkie, depicted the moment of the King's historic arrival at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The only artist to be appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to three successive monarchs, Wilkie also painted the State portraits of William IV and Queen Victoria. Among the 17 works by Wilkie on display in the exhibition are the earliest image of Queen Victoria as reigning monarch, and the artist's first two royal commissions, The Penny Wedding and Blind-Man's-Buff, shown together for the first time in Scotland, alongside previously unseen preparatory sketches.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's first visit to Scotland in September 1842 is recorded in William Leighton Leitch's Dalkeith House seen from the River Esk, 1844, on display for the first time. Leighton Leitch was Queen Victoria's drawing master for nearly 20 years, and the exhibition includes a previously unseen 'lesson in painting' for his royal pupil a series of three small landscape drawings and a detailed note explaining the techniques and processes.
Victoria and Albert's well known affection for Scotland is reflected in the many works commissioned by the royal couple from Scottish artists to capture the world around them, including their favourite staff. A watercolour portrait of the Queen's Piper, William Ross, 1866, shows the subject in full Highland dress of Royal Stuart tartan playing the pipes on the East Terrace of Windsor Castle.
Works by the 19th-century Aberdeen artist James Giles are also on display. It was Giles's images of Balmoral that Prince Albert and Queen Victoria were shown during negotiation of the lease in 1848 they had never seen the estate themselves. Immediately following the acquisition, the Queen commissioned Giles to paint A View of Balmoral and A View of Lochnagar as Christmas presents for Prince Albert, together with five watercolours by the artist.
Among the more personal works on display are miniatures by Sir William Ross, whom Queen Victoria commissioned to paint her first miniature portrait as monarch, shortly after her accession to the throne in 1837. Ross's miniature of the Queen is displayed alongside miniatures of four of her children at the ages of four or five, commissioned by Prince Albert as gifts to Victoria.
On display for the first time are three vibrant watercolours by Sir James Guthrie, Edward Arthur Walton and Robert Macaulay Stevenson of the Glasgow Boys. A circle of around 20 artists and designers, the Glasgow Boys' artistic standing was confirmed when two albums of work by the Glasgow Art Club, of which they were part, were presented to The Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) on the occasion of the opening of the Glasgow International Exhibition on 8 May 1888.
Royal interest in and acquisition of Scottish works of art have continued into the 20th and 21st centuries. The Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) were presented with a magnificent large-scale musical pedestal clock by the Scottish clockmaker John Smith by the citizens of Glasgow on the occasion of their marriage in 1923. In 2003 Her Majesty The Queen acquired a preparatory sketch for Sir David Wilkie's painting Blind-Man's-Buff.
Exhibition curator Deborah Clarke of Royal Collection Trust, said 'This exciting exhibition is a fascinating reflection of the distinctive tastes of the various monarchs and their long association with the work of Scottish artists, an interest which has continued until the present day.'