26th Aug, 2020 14:00

The British & International Pictures Auction

 
  Lot 36
 

CHILDREN SHRIMPING, AN OIL BY WILLIAM MCTAGGART

WILLIAM MCTAGGART RSA RSW (SCOTTISH 1835 - 1910),
CHILDREN SHRIMPING
oil on canvas, signed and dated 1893
35cm x 50cm
Framed
Label verso: Frost & Reed.
Provenance: Christie's, London, 22 September, 1978, lot 119; Christie's, South Kensington, 25 February, 2009, lot 943.
Note: (b Aros croft, Laggan of Kintyre, Argyllshire, 25 Oct. 1835; d Broomieknowe, nr. Edinburgh, 2 Apr. 1910). The leading Scottish landscape painter of his period. His brushwork was free and fervent and he often depicted rough seas and scudding clouds. He was an influential figure, his followers including his grandson, the artist Sir William MacTaggart (1903–81). He moved to Edinburgh at the age of 16 to study at the Trustees Academy under Robert Scott Lauder. He won several prizes as a student and exhibited his work in the Royal Scottish Academy, becoming a full member of the Academy in 1870. His early works were mainly figure paintings, often of children, but he later turned to land and marine art specifically seascape painting, inspired by his childhood love of the sea and the rugged Mull of Kintyre coast of his birth. McTaggart was fascinated with nature and man’s relationship with it, and he strove to capture aspects such as the transient effects of light on water. He adopted the Impressionist practice of painting outdoors, and his use of colour and bold brushwork resemble qualities found in paintings by Constable and Turner, both artists whom he admired. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of the Scottish landscape and is often labelled "the Scottish Impressionist".

He married Marjory Henderson (1856-1936), the daughter of another painter, Joseph Henderson RSW (1832 - 1908). Joseph's sons John Henderson (1860 - 1924) and Joseph Morris Henderson (1863 - 1936) also being painters. McTaggart painted a striking portrait of his father-in-law, Joseph Henderson, which hangs in the Glasgow Museum. One of his pupils was the Scottish marine painter James Campbell Noble. Robert Gemmell Hutchison was also inspired by McTaggart, and was instructed by him at the Trustees' Academy in 1877 alongside notable contemporaries including Arthur Melville and Patrick William Adam. McTaggart's daughter Annie Mary (1864 - 1949) married the Scottish art historian Sir James Caw. However, McTaggart suffered the loss of his first wife Mary Holmes (d 1884, aged 47 years) and three of his daughters died in infancy. The subject matter of much of McTaggart's work is likely to have been influenced by these life experiences. William McTaggart's significant place in the history of Scottish painting is reflected by the 156 works in UK public collections including at The Tate, Kelvingrove, Glasgow Museums, The Hunterian and The National Galleries of Scotland.

 

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Sold for £8,000
Estimated at £5,000 - £8,000


 
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