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Tower of Forres

Artist Lady Sophia Dunbar (Cheshire, England, 1814 - 1909)

Mediumwatercolour on paper

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 26.1 cm, Width: 57.6 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1989.

CopyrightOut of copyright

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG008397

Keywords

Landscape

About MeLady Dunbar (1814-1909) was born in Cheshire as Sophia Orred. In 1840, upon her marriage to Sir Archibald Dunbar, she came to live in Elgin on the Moray coast. At this time she received private tuition from a number of drawing masters, including John Le Capelain of Jersey, but it was after the birth of her youngest child in 1859 that her 'career' as a painter began. Her first exhibited works appeared at the Society of Female Artists in 1863 and the Royal Scottish Academy in 1867. Henceforth the subjects of her paintings alternated between landscape views from abroad (the Dunbars were intrepid tourists, travelling as far afield as Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Algeria) and rural scenes observed closer to home in Morayshire and Aberdeenshire. When she exhibited for the last time at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1888 she had shown 42 paintings in total, a number which distinguishes her as a leading nineteenth-century lady watercolourist.

This work is undated, however it is likely to be one of the many landscapes featuring the Elgin area painted by the artist from 1867 onwards. Although the impact of the tonal contrasts is inevitably less than it once might have been, such is the deterioration of watercolour over time, the painting is nonetheless highly expressive: the foreground trees and clouds, in particular, are rendered stylistically and make for a pleasing contrast with the naturalistic depictions of the architecture and fields in the middle distance. The technique is extremely contained, as was the fashion, therefore depth is created by applying new layers of pigment once the previous layer has already dried.