RSA Scottish Art
Landscape - Evening
 | Artist: Horatio McCulloch |
| Title: Landscape - Evening | |
| Year: c. 1860 | |
| Medium: oil on canvas | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA Diploma Collection | |
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| Open print version of this work | |
| Description: Horatio McCulloch is one of Scotland's best known nineteenth-century landscape painters, renowned for his romantic portrayal of Scottish scenery. This painting (of an unidentified location in Scotland) is characteristic of McCulloch's later work. It brings together trees, rocks and a dramatic sky to create a moody evocation of the Scottish Highlands. This kind of painting was very popular with wealthy Victorian tourists who were able to explore the remoter parts of the country thanks to the development of the railway network. As a romanticised landscape, it is possible that the artist created this scene by bringing together elements from other places he had sketched or painted. Unlike his successors in the later part of the 19th century, it is unlikely that McCulloch painted this in the open air. There is a lot of foreground detail in this painting, with more hazy areas of the landscape on the distant horizon. The quest for realism in painting was beginning to wane at this point in the 19th century, as photographers became increasingly mobile and more skilled at capturing complex and inaccessible subjects. However, McCulloch has shown skill and patience in the rendering of the large tree, and the minute features in the little rocks and pools. As McCulloch's career developed he moved away from the accurate, topographical description of the land to a personal interpretation, full of energy and atmosphere. This painting, even with all its fine details, is more of an evocation of mood than a depiction of place. The lonely horseman is the only feature that gives us an idea of scale or human presence. This adds to the wildness of the image and would have provoked fascination and a sense of adventure in many travellers. | |
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