WALLER HUGH PATON RSA RSW (SCOTTISH 1828 - 1895),
ARDGARTAN, LOCH LONG
watercolour on paper, signed, titled and dated 14th August, 1878
24cm x 35cm
Mounted, framed and under glass
Label verso: Highgate Gallery, Miranda and Julian Halsby, 26 High Street, London (Julian Halsby with Paul Harris is co-author of The Dictionary Of Scottish Painters 1600 To The Present and and a respected authority on Scottish art). Note: Paton was born in Dunfermline, the son of a damask designer. After briefly following his father into the textile business he became a landscape painter. Hugh was the younger brother of the artist Sir Joseph Noel Paton, who was a good friend of the art critic and artist John Ruskin. It is likely that both brothers attended Ruskin's Edinburgh lectures of 1853 on the principles of Pre-Raphaelitism, which had a great impact on Hugh's work. In exquisitely meticulous studies he depicted the natural beauty of the Scottish Highlands. Paton displayed skill as both an oil and watercolour painter. He was one of the few of his generation to work "en plain air", the then fashion being to complete landscapes in the comfort of a studio. He was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1865, and throughout his career he exhibited nearly 400 pictures there. Paton was a successful painter and large sums were paid for his work in his lifetime. In more recent years, a new generation of collectors have begun to recognize his undeniable quality, the mastery of his technique, both in oil and watercolour, and his sympathetic interpretation of the Scottish countryside.