William McTaggart, R.S.A., R.S.W.

Robertson & Bruce Ltd., Dundee;
Mrs. James Lindsay, Edinburgh, by 1901;
Alex Reid & Lefevre, Glasgow;
Andrew Buist Esq., by 1920;
Private Collection

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, Aitken Dott & Son, 32 Paintings by William McTaggart R.S.A., 1901

James Caw, William McTaggart, Glasgow, 1917, p. 273

The canvas is original. The work is in good original condition, clean and ready to hang. Ultraviolet light reveals no sign of retouching. Held in a lightly decorative gold painted frame in fair condition. Under glass and unexamined out of frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Bonny Muirland belongs to a series of beautiful late landscapes that capture all the qualities that McTaggart had spent his lifetime perfecting. James Caw suggests that 'the last twenty years of his career constitute what may be described as his latest period (1889-1910), the pictures which belong to it reveal his special gifts not only undimmed but in their fullest and most splendid development'. (James Caw, William McTaggart, Glasgow, p.121) The view of the field with the three young children is likely to be from the back of his house in Broomieknowe, the Mid-Lothian village to which McTaggart moved in 1889. The outstanding feature of this work by McTaggart is his power of expressing light, colour and movement and here he excels. He painted a series of major landscapes around Broomieknowe amongst them Winter Broomieknowe in 1896, The Harvest Moon in 1899 and the present work Bonny Muirland.

In 1909 Alexander Errington writes of McTaggart for his love of nature and his brilliance in capturing it on canvas 'an intense and passionate love of nature is the dominant characteristic of the Celtic temperament. To the Anglo-Saxon certain aspects of nature inspire dread or fear. In the old Celtic literature there is no sense of hostility between man and nature in her wildest or gloomiest moods; the Celt gloried in the great expanses of earth and sea and sky, was sensitive to every passing phase, easily stirred to emotional activity and responded alike to the influences of storm and sunshine. He loved Nature for herself, thinking not of what she might produce for him in the way of utility. He delighted in the contemplation of the beautiful, and rose to the glories of the sublime. It is this pure innate love of nature that is the inspiring source of the work of Mr. McTaggart. It is found in his early pictures, but becomes more and more evident with the passing of the years until latterly humanity takes its place not as something superior to but part of the nature he seeks to paint. His career has been a consistent artistic progression with no looking-backward or divergence into wayward paths. It has been a progression from grave to gay, from a limited field to a wide horizon, from the definite and the minute to the freedom of mastery over the means of expression, until in these latter days there is no British landscape painter who has a more complete power of presenting nature in her richest and most glorious effulgence of brilliant sunlight than is possessed by Mr. McTaggart.' (The Studio, Volume 47, p.83)