WILLIAM MCTAGGART RSA RSW (SCOTTISH 1835 - 1910)
HOME FROM THE HERRING FISHING

oil on board
framed

image size 18cm x 25cm, overall size 37cm x 45cm

Exhibition labels verso: McTaggart Centenary Exhibition, 1935, Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh; William McTaggart Exhibition 1989, National Gallery of Scotland
Provenance: by descent to a great-grandson of the artist.
Note: The 1870s marked a period of transition in McTaggart’s paintings, when both his style and his subject matter underwent a dramatic transformation. His Pre-Raphaelite close-up pictures of children are replaced by images of fishing boats and fisher folk, or huge expanses of fields, while the paint surface breaks out into a wild tangle of streaks, splashes and dabs. Tone was increasingly replaced by a rich awareness of colour, surface and texture. Scottish fishing industries and rural life became a source of fascination for McTaggart and he regularly visited both the East and West Coasts of Scotland on drawing and painting trips. On the East Coast he visited Crail in Fife, Westhaven and Carnoustie and on the West Arran, Tarbert and Iona. He made his beloved home region of Kintyre his base, returning there summer after summer on family holidays. His energetic, sparse studies from this time reveal a fascination with fishing vessels (called skiffs) and sailing boats, such as Sketch of Boats and Sketch of Herring Fishermen, both about 1883.