Displaying items by tag: scottish national portrait gallery

Nine photographs by Paul Strand (1890-1976), one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century, have been acquired by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where they have gone on public display until September 20. Taken from Strand’s series of Hebridean photographs from South Uist in 1954, the works are the first examples of his Scottish work to enter into a public collection in Scotland.

This major acquisition, supported by the Art Fund, is composed of nine vintage black and white portraits of Scottish lives and landscapes in South Uist, an island in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland.

The unique relationship between Pablo Picasso and the iconic photographer Lee Miller is explored in a stunning new exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery this summer. This fascinating relationship, between the greatest artist of the twentieth century and the beautiful model, who became a skilled and highly influential photographer, spanned 36 years, from their first meeting in 1937 to Picasso’s death in 1973. 

Over the course of their friendship Miller photographed Picasso more than a thousand times, and the artist, in turn, created a remarkable series of portraits of Lee.

Anyone whose appetite for painting has gone cold will find it inflamed again by “Botticelli to Braque: Masterpieces From the National Galleries of Scotland,” a spectacular exhibition that opened at the de Young Museum on Saturday, March 7.

Decades ago, I began to notice how often in museum retrospectives and anthology shows the lender of particularly impressive works proved to be the Scottish National Art Collection, shorthand for the three linked Edinburgh institutions contributing to the current show: the Scottish National Gallery, Scottish National Portrait Gallery and Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

The Scottish National Portrait Gallery today unveiled a new acquisition, "Portrait of Lady Montgomery" by Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823). This elegant and impressive full-length portrait was allocated to the SNPG through the Acceptance in Lieu of Tax scheme early this year.

It is a major work by Sir Henry Raeburn, the leading Scottish portrait painter of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Full-length portraits from Raeburn’s late career are rare, and this imposing yet sensitively modelled work is the only example of a female sitter depicted by the artist in this format in the SNPG’s collection. Raeburn’s handling of Lady Montgomery’s features and clothes is at once vivid and yet highly subtle. She appears to gently smile at the viewer, while posed before a dramatic skyscape.

In an effort to expand its art collection’s global audience, Scotland will send a number of works on a tour of the United States. Pieces from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art will travel to New York, San Francisco, and Fort Worth. The selected works will differ from city to city to best complement each museum’s permanent collection.

The tour will begin at the Frick Collection in New York on November 5, where 10 paintings will be exhibited, including Botticelli’s “The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child,” John Singer Sargent’s “Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw,” and Diego Velázquez’s “An Old Woman Cooking Eggs.” Following its time at the Frick, an expanded version of the show, which will feature 55 paintings, will head to the De Young Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition will make its final appearance at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

The National Galleries of Scotland made a similar effort to expand their collection’s reach four years ago when they sent a prized Titian painting and other works to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.