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the years from 1918 up until the early 1920s were a boom period for the art
world and prices were considerably higher than they were to be again, relative to inflation,
until after Blyth’s death. Perception of value and the phases of the economic cycle would
not be irrelevant to Blyth, but he bought foremost what he loved, at prices which he
could at that moment afford. after 1920 Blyth’s expenditure rarely exceeded £1,000 in
one year and the greatest amount he spent on one work was to be £800 paid for La Porte
St Denis by W.R. sickert in 1951.
Wilby house was not large enough to hold his growing collection and as a solution
Blyth lent pictures to the Kirkcaldy art Gallery which had opened in 1925, the costs
funded by John Nairn in memory of his son killed in the first World War. Margery Blyth
recalled that her father thought of the Gallery as ‘a dumping ground of representative
pictures from his collection. they had a Boudin already bequeathed to the Gallery and
so he didn’t give them one.’ While the handsome rooms of the first floor did provide
a splendid annexe for his collection, there is no question that the health and eventual
further endowment of the Gallery was an important part of his thinking. Blyth visited the
Gallery at least every Monday morning throughout his life.
the second phase began in 1924, the year in which Blyth acquired his second
work by s.J. Peploe. the majority of pictures purchased up until 1939 were by either
Mctaggart or Peploe.
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