FACT SHEET 1: Alexander Nasmyth – ‘Landscape Loch …...FACT SHEET 2: John Everett Millais – ‘John Ruskin’ (1853) FACTS: John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was known as an

1 Art & Design: Fact Sheets

FACT SHEET 1: Alexander Nasmyth – ‘Landscape Loch Katrine’ (Date unknown)

FACTS:

Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) is known as the

“father of Scottish landscape painting”. He was born

in Edinburgh and started off as an apprentice

painting coats of arms* onto horse-drawn carriages.

He soon became popular with the rich and famous as

a portrait painter. He painted a family portrait for

Patrick Miller of Dalswinton and in return Miller lent

Nasmyth £500 to go to Italy. Nasmyth spent two

years travelling around Italy and studying Italian art

from 1782-1784.

When he came back to Edinburgh Nasmyth switched

from portraits to painting landscapes of Scotland,

which he produced in a very Italian style. Nasmyth

was a good friend of the famous poet Robert Burns,

whose portrait he painted. The two men would often

walk together through scenic* areas of central and

southern Scotland. Nasmyth set up a landscape

painting school in Edinburgh and insisted his pupils

drew outside, from real life scenes, rather than just

working from other people’s drawings and paintings.

He is considered the first great Scottish landscape

painter.

Tourists flocked to Loch Katrine after it was made

famous in the poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’ by Sir

Walter Scott in 1810. The poem sold 25,000 copies

in 8 months, breaking all publishing records. The Lady

of the Lake poem started a trend for sightseers to

visit beautiful areas like Loch Katrine to admire the

scenery and take in the fresh air.

TASKS (one per learner):

1. Life and work

Describe three important things about the

life and work of Alexander Namsyth

2. Subject matter and composition

Title and date of painting.

Subject matter - What can you see in the

painting?

Composition – How are things set out? What

is in the foreground, mid-ground and

background?

3. Colour and mood

What effect does the use of colour have on

the painting? Does the use of colour make the

painting look dark, cold, warm, moody,

cheerful, relaxed?

What sort of mood do you think the painting

expresses?

4. Your opinion

What do you like or dislike about the

painting? Express your own opinion. Begin

sentences with ‘I think...’ ‘I like...’ ‘I believe...’

etc.

*Coat of arms – a special logo specific to one family

or organisation, like a school badge.

*Scenic – somewhere with beautiful natural scenery

or landscapes.

Fact Sheet 1: ‘Landscape Loch Katrine’ by Alexander Nasmyth © Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums)


FACT SHEET 2: John Everett Millais – ‘John Ruskin’ (1853)

FACTS:

John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was known as an

artistic child prodigy*. At the age of 19 he helped to

found the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood. This was a

group of artists who rebelled against the normal

rules of the art world on how paintings should be

constructed. They were inspired by the Victorian art

critic and author John Ruskin who emphasised the

truth and beauty found in nature. The Pre-

Raphaelites painted nature almost like a photograph,

paying close attention to detail in all objects, even

those not normally considered important.

John Ruskin went on a trip to Scotland with his wife

in 1853 and invited the young Millais along. Millais

painted this portrait of Ruskin beside the Finglas

Water, part of Glen Finglas Estate in The Great

Trossachs Forest. Whilst he worked on this painting

Millais fell in love with Ruskin’s wife Effie. Effie left

Ruskin and married Millais soon after and they went

on to have 8 children together. Millais became one of

the best known Pre-Raphaelite painters, famous for

his portraits and later his pure landscape paintings.

This portrait shows a very detailed and truthful

representation* of man and landscape, which is what

Ruskin argued for. Millais very carefully shows the

exact details of Ruskin’s facial features and clothing,

as well as every moss, fern and boulder in the burn

behind him. Ruskin seems caught in a moment of quiet

reflection in nature.


1. Life and work


life and work of John Everett Millais.

2. Subject matter, composition and setting



painting?



background?

Setting - John Ruskin was an author and art

critic living in London. Why do you think

Millais decided to paint his portrait in a wild

place?

3. Colour and detail


the painting? Does the painting look dark,

sunny, cheerful, moody, thoughtful, open or

closed?

Why did Millais paint such a detailed portrait

of Ruskin?

4. Your opinion


painting? Express you own opinion. Begin


etc.

*Child prodigy – someone whose great talent is

recognised whilst they are still a child

*Representation – the way something is portrayed

or pictured


Fact Sheet 2: ‘John Ruskin’ by Sir John Everett Millais 1853

Private Collection; photograph © National Portrait Gallery, London.


FACT SHEET 3: Horatio McCulloch – ‘Loch Katrine’ (1866)

FACTS:

Horatio McCulloch (1805-1867) was born in Glasgow

and was named after Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson

who won the Battle of Trafalgar. McCulloch worked

as a teenager decorating snuff boxes* and painting

scenes in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. He started

off painting landscapes in the style of Alexander

Namsyth (who is featured on one of the other

factsheets) but soon developed his own style. During

his lifetime he became the best known and most

successful landscape painter in Scotland.

McCulloch aimed to paint ‘the silence of the Highland wilderness where the wild deer roam’. His landscapes

celebrate the romantic scenery of Scotland and

evoke* a grand sense of scale and wilderness. During

the Victorian period when he lived, many communities

in the Scottish Highlands were cleared from the land

to make room for large sheep farms and sporting

estates for deer and grouse shooting, McCulloch’s

paintings helped to define the Highlands as a

wilderness rather than as a place where people lived

and worked on the land. His huge dramatic landscape

paintings were very popular with the Victorians and

he helped to create a romantic view of Scottish

scenery that still comes through today.

The Glasgow Boys were a group of artists working in

Glasgow in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They

thought McCulloch and other similar painters were

overly sentimental and romantic. The Glasgow Boys

chose to paint more gritty real life scenes instead –

real people in real places.


1. Life and work


life and work of Horatio McCulloch

2. Subject matter and composition



painting?



background?

3. Colour and mood


the painting? How does the use of colour

make the painting dramatic and romantic?

What sort of mood do you think the painting

expresses? What do you think the painting is

about?

4. Your opinion


painting? Express your own opinion. Begin


etc.

*Evoke – create particular feelings

*Snuff box – airtight box to keep ground tobacco

that was sniffed up the nose not smoked

Fact Sheet 3: Loch Katrine by Horatio McCulloch 1866

© Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk


FACT SHEET 4: Rob Mulholland – ‘Vestiges’ (2009)

FACTS:

Rob Mulholland lives and works in the Trossachs

making public art and sculpture. Much of his work is

inspired by the local environment. His recent work

includes a major public art commission for Alloa town

centre and a sculpture trail at Loch Ard in Loch

Lomond and Trossachs National Park based on the

wildlife found in the area.

‘Vestiges’ is a piece of public art created in 2009 and

installed in beautiful native woodland within the

Trossachs. It is a series of life-size human figures

made out of stainless steel polished to a mirror

finish. The surface of each figure is intentionally

slightly distorted*, creating a slightly altered image

of the surroundings. The reflections change all the

time depending on the light and weather conditions.

Rob says “The essence* of who we are as individuals

in relationship to others and our environment is

important to me as an artist. In ‘Vestiges’ I wanted

to explore this relationship further by creating a

group, a community, within the woods, reflecting the

past inhabitants of the space.”

The dictionary definition of a vestige is a mark,

trace, or visible evidence of something that is no

longer present or in existence. The sculptures are

ghost-like reminders of the people who used to live

and work in the area. They also help encourage

visitors to look at their environment differently.


1. Life and work

Describe three things about the life and work

of Rob Mulholland.

2. Subject matter

Title and date of the work

Subject matter - What does the work consist

of? Where are the sculptures placed?

3. Mood and meaning

How do you think the artist wants people to

feel when they are walking through the woods

and come across the sculptures? How would

you feel seeing these sculptures?

What do you think the sculptures are about?

4. Your opinion


sculptures? Express your own opinion. Begin


etc.

For more on Rob’s work visit www.robmulholland.co.uk

*Distorted – misshapen or twisted

*Essence – the basic, unchanging key feature of

something


Fact Sheet 4: ‘Vestiges’ by Rob Mulholland 2009

All photographs © Rob Mulholland


FACT SHEET 5: Alexander Hamilton‘The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes’ (2008)

FACTS:

Alexander Hamilton was born in 1950 in Caithness,

Scotland. He studied drawing and painting at

Edinburgh College of Art, before spending 6 months

recording the plants on the uninhabited island of

Stroma. It was here he created his first Cyanotype

image, and began a 40 year journey exploring

connections to plants and landscape.

A Cyanotype image is similar to a photographic print

but is made without using a camera or film. Objects

are placed onto light sensitive paper and left in the

sun to leave their shadow. Hamilton says, “I am drawn

to this technique* because of its ability to create

unique images, each made by the plant’s natural

materials. The final result contains the essence* of

each plant.”

Hamilton is very interested in a particular site at

Glenfinlas in the Great Trossachs Forest – the

setting for a famous portrait of art critic John

Ruskin by John Everett Millais in 1853 (the subject

of another group’s fact sheet). Ruskin encouraged

artists to portray* nature as honestly and accurately

as possible, something Alexander also feels strongly

about.

First Hamilton braved the midgies to track down the

exact place Ruskin had stood for his portrait. Then

he carried out a survey of all the flowers growing

within 20 metres of that site, with help from

scientists at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He

then created cyanotype images of all the flowers

that he found. This series of images was exhibited

as The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes in 2008. Some of the

titles of the cyanotypes are taken from Ruskin’s

diary that he wrote whilst he was at Glen Finglas. For

more on Alexander’s work visit

www.alexanderhamilton.co.uk.


1. Life and work

Describe three things about the life and work

of Alexander Hamilton

2. Subject matter

Title and date of the work

Subject matter - What does the work consist

of? How is the work made?

3. Meaning

Why do you think the artist used this

technique* instead of a regular drawing or

painting? (Refer to paragraph three).

4. Your opinion

What do you like or dislike about the work?

Express your own opinion. Begin sentences

with ‘I think...’ ‘I like...’ ‘I believe...’ etc.

*Essence – the basic, unchanging key feature of

something

*Portray – to make a likeness of something for

example by drawing or painting

*Technique – the particular method used, often

involving technical skills


Fact Sheet 5: Two of ‘The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes’ by Alexander Hamilton 2008

Top: July 28 Fine Weather; Bottom: August 22 Walking with Mrs Ruskin

Images © Alexander Hamilton

FACT SHEET 1: Alexander Nasmyth – ‘Landscape Loch …...FACT SHEET 2: John Everett Millais – ‘John Ruskin’ (1853) FACTS: John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was known as an

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