10 Paintings to Visit at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh

André Derain spent most of his childhood in the small French town of Chatou, close to Paris. Twenty years later he shared a studio there, above a disused restaurant, with his friend and fellow artist Maurice de Vlaminck. The two painters were highly influential on each other, utilizing a similarly bright palette, applied in rough dabs of color to obtain the effects of light in their depictions of the Mediterranean landscape. Both artists were closely associated with Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, constituting the first generation of Fauves and Cubists. Collioure was completed in the summer of 1905, after Derain was released from military service. In this southern French harbor the artist, working alongside Matisse, primed his canvas with white paint before applying a close mosaic of brilliant color to achieve the effect of bright light that casts no shadow. Derain, already well versed in Neo-Impressionist painting, applied the color theories of artists such as Georges Seurat to combine the effects of artificial composition in intense color with an observed reality. The work was later bought by dealer Ambroise Vollard and exhibited in the Salon d’Automne together with work by Matisse, Vlaminck, and others. Hung as a group, these paintings were promptly dubbed the Cage aux Fauves (Cage of Wild Beasts) because of their “wild” use of vibrant color. This marked the birth of Fauvism. (Jessica Gromley)

Lake Thun and the Stockhorn Mountains is one of a series of mountain landscapes near Lake Thun, produced late in the career of Ferdinand Hodler. From the mid-19th century, Switzerland began to experience industrial development and a tourist invasion, but nothing of this is seen in Hodler’s Swiss landscapes. As a Symbolist influenced by his reading of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, Hodler is more interested in the mood of the scene rather than the superficial world of appearances. To achieve this he deformed the scene through his own subjectivity. In Symbolism, objects are flattened, simplified, and turned into patterns. Horizontality is the key to this particular painting. Apart from its clear, if not realistic, resemblance to grass, water, mountain, sky, and cloud, it can be read as six rhythmic bands of color. The horizontal signified death to Hodler, a common theme in his painting and that of other Symbolists, but in this work death is not an end but simply one part of the endless life cycle expressed through the symmetry of forms in the earth and the clouds. The mountains are encircled in a halo of cloud and in themselves are evocative of Wassily Kandinsky’s later mystical rendition of mountains. In 1919 Hodler stated that in his contemplation of nature he felt that he was standing on the edge of the earth and communicating with the universe. He cut away the space where the viewer would stand to stress the vastness of the world and to suggest a reality beyond the physical experience of seeing. (Wendy Osgerby)

Born in Amsterdam, Willem Wissing trained in both The Hague and Paris. He became assistant to Sir Peter Lely on his arrival in London in 1676. After Lely’s death four years later, Wissing helped to finish Lely’s uncompleted portraits. Subsequently he became a fashionable portrait painter. He painted many portraits of members of the Stuart court, including Princess, later Queen, Anne. In 1684 he was sent to Holland by King James II to paint the Prince of Orange and Princess Mary. Jan van der Vaardt was born in Haarlem in the Netherlands and in 1674 moved to London, where he spent the rest of his life. He became Wissing’s assistant, painting mainly the landscapes, still lifes, and draperies in his pictures. After Wissing’s death in 1687, van der Vaardt established his own portrait practice, basing his style on Wissing, though his work is less polished. The portrait Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, 1665 – 1714 was painted before Anne ascended to the throne in 1702. Princess Anne was 20 in 1985, and the portrait was painted two years after Anne married Prince George of Denmark. There were probably several versions of this painting, which would have been given as gifts to friends and family. The dog at her feet alludes to marital fidelity, the pillar represents spiritual strength, and the roses signify purity. During her marriage, Anne had many miscarriages, and she gave birth to 12 children, none of whom survived. Queen Anne was the last of the Stuart dynasty to occupy the British throne. (Susie Hodge)

William Mosman’s work is often described as part of the “Scottish Baroque” School of portraiture, alongside contemporary Scottish painters William Aikman, with whom Mosman studied briefly in the 1720s, and Allan Ramsay, who became one of the leading British portraitists of his day. Ramsay and Mosman produced the same kind of fashionably styled portraits in the European manner—a refined approach with attention to fabrics and lighting. However, while Ramsay’s work was cosmopolitan and sophisticated, this double portrait has the simpler charm and more down-to-earth quality of Mosman, to whom the painting has been attributed (though the actual artist is unknown). It shows the sons of great Highland chieftain Sir Alexander MacDonald, who owned estates on the Scottish Isle of Skye. The older boy, James, poses with his gun, which gives him a more senior and serious air than his younger brother Alexander, seen enjoying the more innocent pastime of playing golf (already a popular hobby in Scotland among the well-to-do). The landscape receding into a hazy distance hints at the estates of this important family and, along with the cleverly suffused, harmonizing lighting, echoes the poetic landscapes painted by Poussin and Claude. The boys’ clothes feature three different tartans—family or clan tartans would not become common for another 50 years or so. (Ann Kay)

Born in Edinburgh, portraitist Allan Ramsay studied in London under the Swedish painter Hans Hysing and at the St. Martin’s Lane Academy. He spent three years in Italy, where he worked under Francesco Solimena and Francesco Imperiali. He attracted attention with his full-length portrait of the duke of Argyll and numerous bust-portraits of Scottish gentlemen and their ladies before he finally settled in London. His pleasant manner and skillful mastery in portraying grace and individuality earned him many commissions, and helped him achieve status as court painter to King George III. Ramsay’s fellow Scot represented in this portrait is the philosopher, economist, and historian David Hume, who is considered one of the most important figures of Western philosophy. Part of the Scottish Enlightenment, and heavily influenced by empiricists John Locke and George Berkeley, along with Isaac Newton, Hume’s philosophy is based on skepticism, claiming that all human knowledge comes to us through our senses. Hume dealt with the problem of causation in his Treatise on Human Nature and Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by stating that although we perceive one event following another, we do not perceive any necessary connection between events. David Hume portrays a man of stature and sophistication who gazes ahead with exceptional directness. The features of Hume’s face and the details of his dress display Ramsey’s excellent draftsmanship and conservative use of light. (Sara White Wilson)

This portrait was commissioned and produced while Thomas Gainsborough was still based in Bath, prior to his move to London. He was nevertheless attracting an increasingly prestigious range of clients. For much of his career, Gainsborough maintained a fierce rivalry with Sir Joshua Reynolds. The two artists had very different approaches. Reynolds, with his academic background, would have tackled a sitter of this kind by painting him in the grand manner. The pose would have echoed a classical statue or a painting by an Old Master, while the monument in the background would have featured carvings with some mythological or allegorical allusion. Gainsborough detested this sort of pomposity. His own training had included a stint with Hubert Gravelot, a popular illustrator and engraver, and this had influenced his own approach, which was lighter, more direct, and less artificial than any portrait by Reynolds. Here, John Campbell’s pose is entirely natural and the monument, while imposing enough to hint at a military background, was essentially nothing more than a prop. Gainsborough relied solely on the man’s uniform and the symbols of his office to convey his exalted rank. The duke carries the ceremonial staff that signified his post as the Hereditary Master of the Royal Household. He also belonged to the Order of the Thistle, and he is proudly displaying its badge across his chest. He had been a distinguished soldier and had served as Colonel of the North British Dragoons. (Iain Zaczek)

Alexander Nasmyth has been dubbed the “father of Scottish landscape painting,” but no other work he painted is as well known as this portrait of Scotland’s most famous poet. It was commissioned by Edinburgh publisher William Creech to adorn a new edition of Robert Burns’s poems in 1787, but Burns and Nasmyth were already good friends before the sittings. A half-length portrait framed in an oval, the picture shows Burns confident and well dressed, a trace of amusement around his eyes and lips. The landscape background, suggestive of Burns’s native Ayrshire, supplies a note of melancholy. It is a Romantic portrait, identifying the poet with nature and self-will, but tempered by a flavor of Enlightenment rationalism. The picture has been left partially unfinished because Nasmyth stopped painting once he was satisfied with what he had achieved. (Reg Grant)

Largely self-taught, Scottish painter Sir Henry Raeburn was initially apprenticed to a goldsmith; his marriage to a wealthy widow in 1780 allowed him to pursue his career as an artist. By the late 1780s, he was considered the foremost portrait painter of the country, and he was responsible for painting some of the most influential Scottish figures of the period. In 1819 Raeburn was commissioned to paint the writer and national hero Sir Walter Scott. Scott initially showed some reluctance. He had sat for the artist in 1808, and, despite widespread critical acclaim for this early painting and its impact on the course of Romantic portraiture, Scott had reportedly been unhappy with the deeply serious appearance he had been given. Raeburn started work on the new portrait of Scott in the early 1820s. Working in dark contrasting colors and with his distinctive bold brushstrokes, Raeburn depicted a man at the very peak of his career and influence. A few days after the completion of this painting, Raeburn was dead. His portrait of Scott was to be one of his last, as well as one of his greatest, works. By choosing to remain in his homeland, Raeburn sacrificed some of the opportunity available to many London portraitists. Yet his decision enabled him to develop a more individual style and to spearhead the blossoming Scottish School of the period. Elected president of the Edinburgh Society of Artists in 1814, his significant influence was further recognized in a knighthood, bestowed by King George IV a year before the artist’s death. (Jessica Bishop)

Sir William Nicholson worked in portraiture and theatrical design in the early 20th century. In 1904 he designed sets and costumes for the first stage production of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in London. It was then that Barrie agreed, with some reluctance, to sit for his portrait. It is an extraordinarily downbeat presentation of a writer then at the pinnacle of success. Barrie stands almost in profile, hands in pockets. His features are sallow, although there is a keenness about the eyes. Most of the canvas is filled with emptiness, the figure shrunken and isolated by its surroundings. Not a single detail or splash of brightness relieves what humorist Sir Max Beerbohm described as Nicholson’s “passion for low tones.” The portrait can be read as an expression of Barrie’s inner loneliness, or perhaps it is a reflection of Nicholson’s commitment to the avoidance of self-importance. (Reg Grant)

English artist Ken Currie’s Three Oncologists is an indelible image that articulates the fear people feel when contemplating the reality and myths of cancer. In this painting, Currie—an artist whose work often explores the emotional ramifications of sickness and the notion of diseases as metaphors for social, political, and personal states—represents the almost spiritual pressure placed on oncologists as putative dispensers of healing in the face of disease. The three men depicted in this painting are professors in the Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee, Scotland. Sir Alfred Cuschieri, the Head of Department and Professor of Surgery, is situated in the center with Sir David Lane, Professor of Molecular Oncology, on his right and surgeon Professor R.J. Steele at his left. Through his luminous use of paint—the men surrounded by ominous darkness and posed as if interrupted in mid-operation—Currie casts the figures as spectral figures hovering over the division between life and death. All three wear intelligent, sensitive expressions, yet Professor Steele holds his bloodstained hands away from his body, and Sir Alfred Cuschieri holds a medical implement, summoning up the confusion, fear, and concern felt by the subjects of their struggles when confronted with the perils and realities of medicine. (Ana Finel Honigman)