Until 29 October 2017
This exhibition, drawn from the Stirling Smith’s own collections and supported by the Friends of the Smith, sets out to show how Stirling was painted throughout the ages. It features work by the great Scottish landscape artists Alexander Nasmyth (1758 – 1840) and Horatio McCulloch (1805 – 1867), as well as ‘Glasgow Boys’ William Kennedy, George Henry and John Lochhead.
Works by artists resident in Stirling include those of Sir George Harvey (1806 – 1876) and his niece Nellie Harvey (1865- 1949); animal painter Joseph Denovan Adam; Archibald Allan Russell Watson; MacNeil Macleay; Henry Morley and Isobel Morley. James Bisset Crockhart (1885 – 1974) who emigrated to Canada in 1911, was employed as an artist by Canadian Pacific Railway and became part of the Beaver Hall Group of artists, is represented by a fine painting of Old Stirling Bridge.
The beauty of the Stirling landscape with its three Craigs – Castle, Abbey and Craigfoth – and the windings of the River Forth, ensured that Stirling was on the ‘to do’ list of every landscape artist since the inception of landscape art in the 18th century. Among those visiting artists featured are Joseph Farington (1747 – 1821), Alexander Kellock Brown, war artist Henry Rushbury (1899 – 1968) and Jack Merriott (1901 – 1968) of the St Ives Group.