Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
William Bell Scott, 1811–1890, British
Title:
Ailsa Craig
Date:
1860
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
12 13/16 x 19 1/4 inches (32.5 x 48.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
signed and dated
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.151
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
landscape | boats | path | science | geology | light | reflection | hills | island | mountains | flowers (plants) | flora | sea | sheep
Associated Places:
United Kingdom | Scotland | Clyde, Firth of | Ailsa Craig | South Ayrshire
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Unto This Last (Watts Gallery) (Watts Gallery Trust, 2020-03-10 - 2020-11-01)

The Pre-Raphaelite Lens - British Photography and Painting, 1848-1875 (National Gallery of Art, 2010-10-31 - 2011-01-30)

The Pre-Raphaelite Lens - British Photography and Painting, 1848-1875 (Musée d'Orsay, 2011-03-06 - 2011-05-29)

The Triumph of Landscape - Turner to Monet (National Gallery of Australia, 2008-03-14 - 2008-06-09)

Pre-Raphaelite Vision : Truth to Nature (Tate Britain, 2004-01-12 - 2004-05-03)

Pre-Raphaelite Vision : Truth to Nature (Alte Nationalgalerie, 2004-06-12 - 2004-09-05)

Pre-Raphaelite Vision : Truth to Nature (CaixaForum, Fundacio "la Caixa", 2004-09-28 - 2005-01-09)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 200-201, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Seascapes : Yale Center for British Art., , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1977, no. 49, V 1909 (YCBA) Vertical File

Christine Dixon, Turner to Monet, the triumph of landscape painting , National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Seattle, WA, 2008, pp. 27-8, 160-1, no. 56, ND1349.5 D59 2008 + (YCBA)

Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 160, no. 65, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Allen Staley, Pre-Raphaelite vision, truth to nature , Tate Publishing, London, 2004, p. 52, no. 20, ND467.5 P7 S73 2004 + (YCBA)

Allen Staley, The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape, Clarendon Press, New Haven, 2001, pp. 122, 123, pl. 93, ND1354.5 S82 2001 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Diane Waggoner, The Pre-Raphaelite lens, British photography and painting, 1848-1875 , National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Farnham, Surrey [England], 2009, pp. 61, 91, pl. 47, N72 P5 W34 2010 + (YCBA)

Moritz Wullen, Natur als Vision, Meisterwerke der Englischen Prèaraffaeliten , SMB-DuMont, Berlin, 2004, no. 4, ND467.5 P7 N37 2004 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Scott was overseeing the Government School of Design in the northern English city of Newcastle when the London-based Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood formed in 1848. The Scottish artist was, nonetheless, a close associate of the artistic group and shared their interest in capturing the details of nature with meticulous fidelity. In this view of the Ayrshire coast in southwest Scotland, the islands of Ailsa Craig and, more distantly, Arran emerge from the crystalline waters of the Firth of Clyde. Yellow irises populate the foreground alongside thistles, while Scottish Blackface sheep blaze trails like engraved lines through the landscape. A distant steamboat, a marker of modernity, follows a more ephemeral trail upon the water's surface. Scott sketched the details for this landscape during a summer trip to Ayrshire in 186o. While there, he stayed at Penkill Castle, the family seat of his student and eventual life partner, Alice Boyd. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2022
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:4995