100 masterpieces scottish painting

A Scottish story, the windows open

Scottish painting first established itself through portraiture. Ramsay brought the elegance of the Enlightenment to London, while Raeburn painted scholars, children and clan leaders in Edinburgh with luminous frankness. His reverend skater, arms crossed on a frozen lake, already sums up a certain national talent for keeping calm in questionable circumstances.

In the 19th century, the country itself became a character. Nasmyth observes Edinburgh, Wilkie transforms fairs and interiors into human comedies, McCulloch gives the Highlands their romantic scale and McTaggart liberates the shore with a touch where air, water and silhouettes seem painted in the same breath.

Glasgow then opened the doors to Paris and Japan. Guthrie, Hornel, MacNicol and Neilson Gray renew subjects and framing; Peploe, Cadell and Hunter finally turn color into architecture. This classification favors images become emblematic, then unfold the works which explain how this modernity was constructed.