‘FASCINATING ASSEMBLY’ REVIEWED
While occasionally displaying works of art from further afield (such as this unusual bronze by Eutrope Bouret, see Issue 267), Glenn Ross’s Colours Gallery on Dundas Street has championed nineteenth and twentieth-century Scottish painting for many years.
As well as highlighting the great Colourists – and such as Eardley, Redpath, Gillies, Maxwell et al. – the gallery has profiled lesser-known and neglected artists whose stars have long deserved to shine again.
This exhibition is no exception. Mr Ross has studded this collection of nineteenth–early twentieth-century paintings with a fascinating assembly of artists of fine distinction. They range from a charming pair of pencil on paper ‘Parrots’ sketches by Joseph Crawhall (of the Glasgow Boys) to a stunning, large-scale oil by Frederick William Jackson of ‘Mending the Nets, Runswick Bay, Yorkshire’ (1884) with its subtle shadow-play and swerving perspectives.
Space allows for mention of only a few highlights.
A brace of works by Scottish artists featuring European cities stand out. ‘Market Scene, Bruges’, 1900, by John Muirhead (1863–1927) is marked by bustling, free-range brush strokes, and is reminiscent of Eugène Boudin.
James Kay’s gouache of ‘L’Havre’ is a joyful, deceptively faux-naif piece – but look at the marvellous rippling water in the foreground, worthy of Monet.
Another brace opens audacious casements on Edinburgh. Here is a dramatic oil by William Oliphant Hutchison which presents an airy, vertiginous view of ‘Moray Place from Dean Bridge’.
Then, Robert Easton Stuart’s ‘Flower Seller, Waverley Market’ (c.1900–05) is a singular social study of an interior scene located, appropriately enough, not far distant from today’s Fruitmarket Gallery.
Three other works in the exhibition attracted this viewer. James Kay’s ‘Scarborough, Early Evening’ is a brilliant sunset painting, with an outstanding stippled effect. Incidentally, Charlotte Bronte’s burial ground is at the top of the hill in the background. Then there is John R. Reid’s ‘Luss, Loch Lomond’ which is pervaded by a lustrous, almost spectral light.
Finally, a hugely desirable rarity in the collection is Robert Barnabus Brough’s ‘Young Girl’.
Brough (1872–1905) was born in Invergordon, Ross-shire and received his training at Gray’s School of art and Julien’ts atelier in Paris as a portrait painter and political cartoonist. His most notable work, ‘Fantasie en Folie’ (1897) is now in the Tate Gallery. Hew was a friend of John Singer Sergeant, who painted his portrait in c.1900. Brough died tragically from injuries sustained in a railway accident in Yorkshire. ‘Young Girl’ is a poignant vestige of this very gifted artist who merits a much wider audience.
Leaving Colours Gallery and proceeding up Dundas Street, pause at the basement area two doors along. Here is Mr Pedros Vantania’s much noted horticultural creation, now aglow with apple trees and sunflowers. It might well be a detail of a painting worthy of inclusion in Mr Ross’s typically exhilarating exhibition!—JRM
[All artwork images here are reproduced, with kind permission, from https://ampm-art.com].
