Adam Bruce Thomson, Untroubled Certainty.

ADAM BRUCE THOMSON

ADAM BRUCE THOMSON Untroubled Certainty 5 - 29 April 2017

16 Dundas Street ¡ Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Cover: Stornoway Harbour, c.1954, tempera on board, 51 x 63.5 cms, signed lower left (detail) (cat. 26) Left: East Coast Fishermen at Nets, c.1942, watercolour and pen, 31.5 x 37 cms, signed lower left (detail) (cat. 7)

ADAM BRUCE THOMSON

A long life, good health, and a strict work ethic are necessary ingredients for a productive life. Add to the recipe a considerable talent and you have a description of Adam Bruce Thomson. He died in 1976 and The Scottish Gallery continued a productive relationship with his daughters, Margaret and Mary leading to his Centenary show in 1985 and a major reappraisal retrospective in 2013. Now the Thomson girls have passed also but a substantial body of work is still intact allowing us to focus on different aspects and periods of the artist’s output and here we look again at his watercolour. Like his friend William Gillies he had his favoured locations, and the Scottish Borders and West Highlands are revisited as well as forays to the outer isles, Berwickshire coast and of course the hills of his home city, Edinburgh. His early pastel, gouache and tempera gave way to watercolour as his dominant medium after the War and his distinctive, free technique, vigorous descriptive drawing and strong local colour have become an essential contribution to The Edinburgh School.

GUY PEPLOE February 2017

Right: Adam Bruce Thomson, Self Portrait, 1933, Private Collection 2

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1. On the Tweed, c.1920 watercolour, pen and ink, 34 x 41.5 cms signed lower left Provenance: Studio inventory number W146 4

2. Bonawe Quarry, Loch Etive, Argyll, c.1934 charcoal, pen and ink, 34 x 40 cms signed middle

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3. Bridge and Trees, c.1938 gouache, 31 x 41 cms signed lower left 6

4. Pap of Glencoe, c.1938 pen and ink wash, 29 x 35.5 cms signed lower right 7

5. At Lismore, c.1938 watercolour, 48 x 64 cms signed lower right Provenance: Studio inventory number W147 8

6. Colinton Church, c.1941 pen and ink, 28 x 33.5 cms signed lower right

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Net and coble fishing for salmon, a method that has changed little since the 12th century, was practised in Cove Bay (where we suspect this work was painted), which also supported a few herring boats. The industry had declined from its mid-nineteenth century peak, hastened by the storm of 14th October 1821 when 189 Berwickshire fishermen died, including 11 from Cove.

7. East Coast Fishermen at Nets, c.1942 watercolour and pen, 31.5 x 37 cms signed middle left 10

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8. Borders Village, c.1945 watercolour and pen, 28 x 37 cms signed middle left 12

Immediately after the Second World War the artist stayed at Shieldaig on Loch Torridon in a house on a point overlooking the village. At this time he was showing increasing mastery of pure watercolour, and several Wester Ross examples would be included in his one-man-show at The Scottish Gallery in October 1946.

9. Summer’s Day, Plockton, c.1945 watercolour and pen, 38 x 28 cms signed lower right 13

10. Shieldaig, c.1945 watercolour and pen, 44 x 38 cms signed lower left 14

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The oil version of this painting was illustrated on the front cover of our major retrospective of the artist in 2013, Painting the Century, and is now in the National Galleries of Scotland collection.

11. Harbour, St Abbs, c.1946 gouache, 36 x 48.5 cms 16

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12. Near Blair Atholl, Early Spring, c.1946 watercolour, 38 x 49.5 cms signed lower left 18

13. Orton, Westmorland, c.1946 tempera on board, 38 x 50.5 signed lower right 19

14. Loading Coal, Iona, c.1947 watercolour, 29.5 x 41.5 cms signed middle left 20

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The artist had painted widely in the Highlands and Islands – Skye, Lismore and Mull – before he went to Iona, perhaps encouraged by the painter Penelope Beaton, a friend and colleague at Edinburgh College of Art. Like Peploe and Cadell, the Colourists before him, he was captivated by the light, colour and special quality of the island. His visits were to result in characteristic fluid watercolours and in some freely handled oils. He stayed with his wife and on occasion visited with members of the family, usually in a small house at the North End. He would sometimes paint three watercolours in one day.

15. Strand of the Monks, Iona, c.1947 watercolour and pen, 26 x 35 cms signed lower left Provenance: Studio inventory number W148 22

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16. St Monans, c.1948 gouache, 37.5 x 56 cms signed middle right 24

17. Drying the Nets, Plockton, 1950 pen and ink, 26 x 40.5 cms signed lower right 25

18. Tarbert, Loch Fyne, c.1950 watercolour and pen, 25 x 37.5 cms signed lower right 26

19. Near Melrose Abbey, c.1950 pen and ink wash drawing, 29 x 38 cms Provenance: Studio inventory number D29 27

20. Near Onich, c.1950 pen and ink, 25 x 35 cms signed lower right 28

The artist painted over many years in Plockton in Wester Ross. His lifelong friend D. M. Sutherland and his wife Dorothy Johnstone had known it for a long time. The artist had painted on Loch Torridon immediately after the Second World War but when he discovered Plockton for himself, it was to become a source of some of his best known work.

21. Plockton, c.1950 pencil, pen and ink, 28 x 38 cms 29

22. Coming into Dock, St Abbs Harbour, c.1952 pen and ink, 28.5 x 44.5 cms signed lower right

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23. Rough Sea with Rocks, Cliffs and Seagulls, c.1952 watercolour, 25 x 32 cms signed lower right Provenance: Studio inventory number W144 31

24. Sail Boat Entering Into St Abbs Harbour, c.1952 watercolour, 24 x 32 cms signed lower right 32

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The artist enjoyed painting the sea in all weathers, and it was not unknown for his watercolour paper to get blown into the sea and be retrieved. He would perch high on the cliffs above St Abbs and watch the breakers crashing over the harbour. He saw too how the fishermen with their vast experience timed themselves as they ran along the breakwater dodging the dangerous waves!

25. Stormy Day, St Abbs Harbour, c.1952 watercolour, 27.5 x 35.5 cms 34

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26. Stornoway Harbour, c.1954 tempera on board, 51 x 63.5 cms signed lower left 36

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27. Stornoway Harbour, c.1954 watercolour, 64 x 48 cms signed lower right Provenance: Studio inventory number W149 38

28. Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, c.1954 watercolour, pen and pencil, 26.5 x 36 cms

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29. Busy Day, Pittenweem, c,1958 watercolour, 35.5 x 48.5 cms signed lower right 40

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30. Stow, c.1958 watercolour and pen, 48 x 39 cms signed lower right 42

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The artist produced spirited work while painting at Tarbert on Loch Fyne. He stayed with his wife at a hotel on the sea-front and enjoyed the constant activity on the water.

The popular television series, The Vital Spark, was being filmed at the time, and some of the cast stayed in the same hotel. The artist and his wife later recalled with amusement the day when the puffer and the cast left, with every horn sounding, flags waving, and what seemed like Tarbert in its entirety out to say farewell.

31. Tarbert, Loch Fyne Harbour, c.1959 watercolour and pen, 34 x 45.5 cms signed lower left 44

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32. Boats at Harbourside, St Abbs, c.1960 pen and ink, 36 x 52 cms signed lower right

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33. Summer Day, The Sound of Iona, c.1960 watercolour, 27.5 x 39.5 cms signed lower left Exhibited: Adam Bruce Thomson, Painting the Century, The Scottish Gallery Edinburgh, 2013, cat.63 Provenance: Studio inventory number W142 47

Fellow artist and teacher at Edinburgh College of Art, D.M. Sutherland, rented a house in Wester Ross and it is likely that this is a painting from their time together. William Gillies, although slightly younger than Bruce Thomson and Sutherland, became a lifelong friend; both had taught Gillies at the College before and after WWI (Gillies had also served his country with the Scottish Rifles). Gillies joined the staff at the College in 1925.

34. Looking to Duncraig, c.1960 watercolour, 26 x 38 cms signed lower left Provenance: Studio inventory number W145 48

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The flowers were usually simply arranged by the artist’s wife: the vase here was a favourite with or without flowers – kingfisher blue from the Ruskin Pottery.

35. Flowers in a Blue Vase, c.1965 watercolour, 66 x 53 cms signed lower right 50

36. Stooks, East Lothian, c.1965 watercolour, 38.5 x 55 cms signed lower left 52

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37. Kyleakin, Skye, c.1965 pen and ink, 28 x 38 cms signed lower left 54

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Like Gillies and MacTaggart, Adam Bruce Thomson often made brush drawings: watercolour works in monochrome that give a stark quality to the subject.

38. Heavy Weather, Plockton, c.1967 pen and ink wash on card, 50.5 x 63.5 cms signed lower right 56

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“Let us take, first of all, the work of the President, Mr. Adam Bruce Thomson. He is highly aware of the problems of pictorial structure. You feel that he walks abroad with his paint box in the expectation – or hope – that nature will provide him with what he needs. When found, he grasps the essentials quickly, selects what he wants, and then with complete mastery of his technique, he sets it down on paper with direct, untroubled certainty.”

Stanley Cursiter, Review of the 81st Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours at the Royal Scottish Academy, Scottish Field, 1961

39. Plockton, Stormy Skies, c.1967 watercolour, 25 x 36.5 cms signed lower right Provenance: Studio inventory number W143 58

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The artist painted in the Scottish Borders until his late eighties, particularly in autumn when the rich colours of the earth, fields, hills, trees, rivers, rolling landscapes and ruined abbeys were combined in satisfying compositions.

Man sometimes appears as a natural part of the landscape.

He was particularly fond of Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso and the surrounding countryside, and was at one time a familiar figure locally, walking to and from his subjects with his sketching equipment in a pack on his back.

40. Fishing on the Tweed, Autumn, c.1968 watercolour, 38 x 64.5 cms signed lower left Provenance: Studio inventory number W62 60

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ADAM BRUCE THOMSON OBE, RSA, PRSW (1885-1976)

Thomson was born in Edinburgh and studied at the Royal Institution School of Art and the RSA Life School. He went on to study at the Edinburgh College of Art between 1908 and 1909, where he gained technical expertise in etching, drypoint and lithography and in the difficult media of pastels and watercolours. Thomson’s early years at the Edinburgh College of Art, had all the rigours of life classes, study of the antique and copying the Old Masters. Thomson graduated with Diplomas in Drawing and Painting, and Architecture before travelling to Spain, Holland and Paris on various scholarships during 1910. One of his earliest surviving oils, from 1910, depicts St. Martin’s Bridge in Toledo, Spain. In 1912 Thomson took up employment at the Edinburgh College of Art. During World War I Thomson served in the Royal Engineers as a Second Lieutenant. Following the Battle of Arras he produced some poignant works on-the-spot and was able to record troops moving near Arras by the shattered façade of the Abbey of Mont St Eloi. Other works, including Reconstructing the Bridge, Montignies were exhibited at the RSA in 1921 and, more recently, at the The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Also displayed was a finely detailed pen and pencil drawing of Zeppelin L 33 which crashed at New Hall Farm, Little Wigborough on the night of 23 September 1916.

children born between 1919 and 1924. In 1919 Thomson resumed his staff position at the Edinburgh College of Art and would remain there until 1950. During this career, Thomson taught etching, composition, still life to the painting school and colour theory to the art and architecture students. Regular visitors to the Thomson family home included his student and protégé William Wilson and also William Crozier. Other close colleagues from the Edinburgh College of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy included Stanley Cursiter and David Macbeth Sutherland. In the 1920s in particular Thomson’s work was at its closest to that of SJ Peploe, FCB Cadell and other contemporaries, notably John Guthrie Spence Smith and Penelope Beaton

Thomson’s oil paintings share some of the characteristics of his colleagues at the College, Sir William Gillies and Sir William MacTaggart. The early 1930s saw his series of monumental paintings of his hometown including North Bridge and Salisbury Crags, from the North West, now in the Edinburgh City Art Centre, and The Old Dean Bridge exhibited at the RSA in 1932. Throughout his life, Thomson painted extensively using watercolours and oils in and around Edinburgh, the Berwickshire coast, South West of Scotland, the Scottish Borders as well as extensively in the Highlands and Islands. The archives of the National Library of Scotland hold some 24 of his sketchbooks, spanning On 15 April 1918 Thomson married Jessie I. Hislop, the around 40 years of work. sister of his great friend and fellow artist W.B. Hislop and they set up home in Marchmont. The couple had three

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PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Bradford Museums and Galleries City Arts Centre (including Jean F Watson and Scottish Modern Arts Association Collections) City of Edinburgh Council Clydesdale Bank Dundee Art Gallery and Museum Fleming-Wyfold Collection Glasgow Museums HM The Queen’s Private Collection Heriot-Watt Art Collection McLean Museum and Art Gallery – Inverclyde Council National Galleries of Scotland National Library of Scotland National Trust for Scotland Paisley Museum and Art Galleries Royal Scottish Academy University of Edinburgh Fine Art Collection University of St. Andrews

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, annually 1909-1977 Scottish Society of Artists, Edinburgh, frequently Royal Glasgow Institute, Glasgow, frequently The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, frequently Aberdeen Artists Society, Aberdeen Solo exhibition, Aitken Dott and Son (The Scottish Gallery), Edinburgh, 1946 Solo exhibition, Douglas and Foulis Gallery and Scottish Arts Club, 1967 Centenary Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1985 Exhibition of Scottish Watercolours, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 1989 Adam Bruce Thomson, Oils and Works on Paper, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2003 Adam Bruce Thomson, Painting the Century, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2013 Adam Bruce Thomson, The Pastels, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2015 Adam Bruce Thomson, Untroubled Certainty, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2017

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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition ADAM BRUCE THOMSON: UNTROUBLED CERTAINTY 5 - 29 April 2017 The Scottish Gallery would like to thank Elizabeth and Andrew Hall for their help with the exhibition.

Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/adambrucethomson ISBN: 978 1 910267 55 4 Designed by Kenneth Gray Photography by John McKenzie Printed by J Thomson Colour Printers All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

16 Dundas Street ¡ Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Right: Bonawe Quarry, Loch Etive, Argyll, c.1934 charcoal, pen and ink, 34 x 40 cms signed lower right (detail) (cat. 2) 64