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

William Gibson, Inverary

Royal Scottish Academy, 1888, no. 278

The canvas has been lined. Under ultra-violet light there are some spots of retouching apparent above and along the lower edge, mainly to the left side of the work. Otherwise, the work appears to be in good order. It is well presented and ready to hang in a plain gilt moulding 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."

A harbour bar is a shallow sand bar across the mouth of a harbour. Here we see the oarsmen bringing the boat into harbour with powerful strokes, a fisherman stands at the helm, rope coiled ready in his hand, waiting to secure the boat to its moorings. In the summers of 1883 and 1885 McTaggart went to stay at Carradale on the east coast of Kintyre. The main focus of his work here was the lives of the herring fishermen, both out at sea and on the shore. Here he painted a number of pictures and sketches which he would then go on to use as compositions for larger works in the coming years, such as The Storm, 1890 (National Gallery of Scotland). He also painted a watercolour, Crossing the Bar, 1883 (National Gallery of Scotland) which was later developed into Over the Harbour Bar,one of his most important pictures of the period. The two paintings are almost identical in the placement of the two boats with the wave breaking beyond, the spray jetting upwards in a thick white impasto, gulls rising in the distance as if disturbed by the waves. The lapse of time between sketch and finished piece was not unusual for McTaggart and illustrates his habit of spending the summers painting outdoors and storing up material for later re-working in the studio during more inclement weather.

The painting is a wonderful example of the artist’s middle period: he has moved away from the more tightly painted and highly finished narrative paintings of his early career and is concentrating on simple, immediate scenes of every day life without literary or allegorical meaning. His brush work has loosened yet not to the point where the figures are merging into the landscape; they are still detailed and expressive, his knowledge of fishing vessels is very apparent, we also see the lovely detail of the herring filling the bottom of the boat. “..in his interest and appreciation of the visual aspects of nature, and the ever-varying phenomena of light and atmosphere, he is truly modern; but he brings with him also the eye of the poet – a sympathetic insight into the significance of life and nature – which divides him from the mere recorders of fact, be they never so broadly expressive, and places him among creative artists. (‘A Scottish Impressionist’, James Caw, Art Journal, 1894).

Similarities between McTaggart's work and that of impressionists is undeniable – the broad brush strokes and sophisticated use of colour; the ability to capture a moment in time, conveying the constantly changing effects of light on the sea, painted plein air. He had an instinctive and spontaneous feel for colour and effects of sunlight, developing a technique, possibly influenced by the Hague School of artists, some of whom had exhibited in Scotland in the 1870s, of loading his brush straight from the tube and applying thick strokes of impasto. However, despite these comparisons with the developments in continental Europe, McTaggart’s work was very rooted in Scotland and his work arguably owes as much to John Constable as the French Impressionists, who he is unlikely to have seen as early as the 1880s when his work was already becoming much freer. Constable’s work was exhibited in Edinburgh in the 1880s, particularly in 1886 the year Over the Harbour Bar was painted, when the six footer studies of  the Hay Wain and The Leaping Horse (both Victoria & Albert Museum) were exhibited at the Edinburgh International Exhibition. 1886 was a watershed moment in McTaggart’s career and given his acknowledged admiration for Contstable, it is quite likely that seeing the studies which are far more free than the finished works would have had some impact on him.

Ultimately, however, William McTaggart was a very single-minded and creative artist and no imitator. His style developed independently from modern trends and while he may have been encouraged to broaden his strokes, or paint directly from nature by developments in the contemporary art scene, his style was unique and remarkably progressive for its time. James L. Caw, McTaggart’s biographer recounts a fascinating anecdote from the late 1880s:

‘McTaggart, who was little concerned with labels, although deeply interested in ideas, hearing it (impressionism) constantly referred to one varnishing day at the Academy, took Wingate (the artist James Lawson Wingate) aside and asked, “what is this impressionism they are all talking about?” “Well I fancy,” the reply came with a twinkle, “I fancy it’s just what you and I have been doing for a good many years”. (Per Kvaerne, Singing Songs of the Scottish Heart, William McTaggart 1835-1910, Atelier Books, p.249, quoting James L. Caw, William McTaggart R.S.A., V.P.R.S.W. A Biography and an Appreciation, 1917, p.100).