McTAGGART, WILLIAM (1835-1910)

**PRICE ON APPLICATION**
 
"Seascape" (c.1880) 
watercolour
25.5 x 35.5cm
signed lower right
*private collection, Sydney
 
William McTaggart RSA was a pioneering, famous Scottish Impressionist. He is one of Scotland's most famous artists, known primarily for his landscape paintings. In fact he is regarded as one of the great interpreters of the Scottish landscape and is often labelled THE "Scottish Impressionist". He was a pioneer in the style before the term 'impressionism' became a household name!! He entered the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh in 1852, and studied under Robert Scott Lauder, who taught him to draw and paint ‘in the round’ from antique casts and life models. At the Trustees Academy he won various awards including first prizes for both painting from life and from the antique. Even as a student he developed a career in portraiture and Pre-Raphaelite genre painting, travelling to England and Ireland to complete commissions. During this time McTaggart became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) in Edinburgh and the Royal Academy in London. Light, space and air became increasingly important to him from the 1870s as his paintings evolved into a more painterly and abstract style. During this time McTaggart exhibited regularly with the RSA and the Glasgow Institute and began to receive recognition in the national press. At this time his work was inspired by Josef Israels, James McNeill Whistler & John Constable. From the 1880s McTaggart painted the majority of his largest canvases out of doors. His broad, expressive handling of paint and en plein air technique has often been likened to his European contemporaries, the French Impressionists. Many of his major works are now held in public art collections across the UK including Tate and The National Galleries of Scotland.