Download a PDF of the exhibition catalogue - The Scottish Gallery

“The remarkable place which he holds in the history of nineteenth-century painting is little realised. What McTaggart
accomplished can be stated in a very few words. As early as 1875 he had invented a system of Impressionist painting
different from, but comparable with, that of Sisley, Monet or Renoir. This fact takes on greater importance when it
is recollected that the first Impressionist Exhibition held in Paris was in 1874, and that so far as can be ascertained
McTaggart saw his first Monet in the nineties.
“From his own observation it seems that he evolved theories relating to light and movement, in many ways
similar to those which are more familiarly associated with the French Impressionists; and apart from Turner there is
probably no British painter who has succeeded so well in evoking beauty of sunshine and wind and sea.”
This extract from David Fincham’s introduction to the Tate Gallery’s Centenary Exhibition of the artist in 1935
puts McTaggart’s extraordinary contribution to Scottish and British art in context. Blyth lent eleven paintings to the
exhibition and would eventually own forty-five. Sunset was bought from The Scottish Gallery in 1938. McTaggart did
not travel this year but did paint Fishers Landing, Carnoustie and our picture may also be inspired by the North Sea
at Carnoustie. It is an example of pure, ecstatic landscape painting typical of his last period: vivid and painted with
great freedom.
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