3rd Nov, 2021 14:00

The British & International Pictures Auction

 
  Lot 82
 

DRIFTING OUT, CAMPBELTOWN LOCH, A PASTEL BY SIR JAMES LEWIS CAW

SIR JAMES LEWIS CAW (SCOTTISH 1864 - 1950),
DRIFTING OUT, CAMPBELTOWN LOCH
pastel on paper, signed, titled
image size 20cm x 37cm, overall size 45cm x 61cm
Mounted, framed and under glass.
Label verso: Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh (now The Scottish Gallery).
Note: Sir James Caw is a significant figure in Scottish art history, as a curator, critic and art historian. He was also, perhaps not coincidentally, married to the eldest daughter of the artist William McTaggart RSA (1835-1910) and a practising artist in his own right. After a spell as curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery he was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Scotland (as it then was) in 1907 and remained in post till 1939, retiring at the age of 75. Both through his acquisitions for the Gallery and as art critic of The Scotsman for seventeen years he did much to shape artistic taste in Scotland. His book "Scottish Painting, Past and Present, 1620-1908" provided the standard history of Scottish art for much of the 20th century. In the words of Duncan Macmillan, it ‘inspired and informed Scottish readers for over eighty years’. Caw also produced monographs on Ramsay, Raeburn, Sir James Guthrie and – not least – his father-in-law William McTaggart. McTaggart was born on the Mull of Kintyre and Campbeltown and Machrihanish were favourite locations for his paintings. James Caw would also have visited the area to visit his wife's family. Caw remains a hugely significant figure in Scottish art history but his own work very rarely appears at auction.

 

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Sold for £130
Estimated at £100 - £200


 
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