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serviced by two discerning dealers: Alexander (‘Alex’) Reid, who in 1889 opened his
gallery in Glasgow, La Société des Beaux-Arts; and in Edinburgh the firm of Aitken
Dott. Reid, who had shared rooms with Vincent van Gogh in Paris when he was learning
the trade with Vincent’s brother Theo, was a persuasive and charismatic gallerist who
established a family business which eventually left Glasgow to form Reid & Lefèvre in
London, where it trades still today.
Aitken Dott opened his art business in May 1842 in Edinburgh and it was his
son Peter McOmish Dott who developed the business as a picture dealer by opening
The Scottish Gallery in 1896. Blyth formed a stronger relationship with this firm than
with any other dealer, and the majority of pictures acquired over his long life were
bought from The Scottish Gallery. His first major purchase of a work by McTaggart, Away
to the West, was from an exhibition held in the Castle Street premises in 1910, the year
of the artist’s death. The first work by Peploe, Town in Brittany, was purchased in 1915
from Reid’s gallery in Glasgow. Blyth was able to visit Glasgow and Edinburgh at least
one or two times a week as a travelling salesman for the family firm; he visited London
about twice a year. His daughter Margery remembered that ‘he would hardly ever go to
London without returning with a picture or two.’
Describing her father as ‘extrovert and popular but contented in his own
home’, Margery remembered his strong and ‘very Scottish’ emotions for music and art:
‘He would weep at a touch but also be adamant.’ Lillian Browse, who supplied Blyth with
a number of Sickerts in the 1940s, also used the word ‘adamant’ to describe his character.
She remembered distinctly his ‘Raeburn head’, and spoke of his passion for art: ‘He used
to lick his lips in front of a painting as if it were a huge feast.’ She talked of his great sense
of fun and recalled that he was very ‘touchy’ about the London dealers’ attitudes to the
Scottish artists. Never an easy client, he was strong minded and liked to haggle over
prices in order to secure bargains. Margery remembered that ‘he used to groan heavily
when he had to write a cheque’.
Blyth never ventured across the Channel in pursuit of pictures. He would have
seen works by Degas, Manet and Cézanne at Alex Reid’s gallery in Glasgow before
the Great War, but at that time was not tempted. He was never able to compete with
collectors such as Burrell, who could afford to spend £6,500 on a Degas in 1926, but nor
was competition with rival collectors his motivation. He had very strong and particular
taste – taste which did develop. For example, he began to collect Sickert in earnest
in the 1940s, but not at the expense of his advocacy for McTaggart; when McTaggart
prices fell in the depressed years of the Second World War, Blyth saw opportunities for
new purchases rather than bemoaning his lack of judgment in paying so much before.
The most expensive item Blyth ever purchased was White Surf by McTaggart for £1,050
in 1920 from The Scottish Gallery. W.J. Macaulay, director of The Scottish Gallery in
the 1960s, recalled that Blyth actually had to sell his car in order to buy his first work
by McTaggart, although this was a period of relative prosperity for Blyth. His love of a
bargain may well have been the motivation for some of his purchases, and the works by
Vuillard, Corot and Boudin that were added to his collection at a relatively late stage
were certainly bought advantageously.
As a natural extension to his interest in art he was drawn into public life and
became closely identified with the development of the Kirkcaldy Art Gallery. In February
1925 he was appointed the Gallery’s first convenor, a position which he occupied for the
rest of his life. He was made chairman of the Scottish Modern Arts Association (SMAA),
an organisation set up in 1907 to buy pieces to form the nucleus of a national collection
of modern work. His knowledge and his passion as a collector made him a natural choice
as a trustee of the National Gallery of Scotland in 1944.
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