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this charming panel dating from 1890 was completed the year after the artist had moved to Broomieknowe on the
outskirts of edinburgh where many of his later landscapes were painted, looking out over the farmland to the back of
his garden. James Caw records that our picture is a smaller version of Autumn Sunshine in Sandy Dean, exhibited in the
Rsa in 1891. the figures are almost subsumed within their rural setting to the point where they come to be part of the
landscape itself: their presence vivifying the landscape and suggesting movement. While the presence of figures provides
a narrative element, Mctaggart’s real concern is with light. the sun casts varying shades of shadow across the eldin Dean
road (the ‘sandy Dean’ of his title) and a field of stooks in the middle ground is captured in the autumnal sunshine with
highlights of pure white and yellow.
William Mctaggart (1835–1910)
Dappled Sunlight, Sandy Dean, 1890
oil on panel, 18 x 25.5 cms
exhibited:
John N Kyd sale at Dowell’s, edinburgh, 1932
aitken Dott & son, the scottish Gallery, 1945
Paintings by William McTaggart RSA, Royal scottish academy, edinburgh, 1954, (no.13)
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