A PIONEERING female Scottish artist is to feature in a special exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of The Fine Art Society in Scotland.
Phyllis Bone, who sculpted all but one of the animals on the Scottish National War Memorial, will be presented along with other important female artists such as Anne Redpath, Betty Blandino and Ishbel Myerscough, whose monumental Kitchen Table will be one of the exhibition’s contemporary centrepieces.
The exhibition is to place a particular emphasis on artists whose contributions have historically been overlooked and will include a striking painting by Clare Atwood, The Terry Family, Four Generations (1953), which explores the intertwined worlds of theatre, modernism and queer history.
Atwood, the partner of theatre director and producer Edith Craig, was closely connected to the pioneering avant-garde theatre collective The
Pioneer Players, for whom Craig staged more than 150 productions. The work offers a glimpse into one of the most progressive artistic and theatrical circles of early 20th century Britain.
At the heart of the exhibition will be a group of early 19th-century etchings by James McNeill Whistler from a single-owner collection.
Whistler, who is known as a key figure in the creation of the modern print market, revolutionised printmaking through his signed, limited edition etchings and radical approach to display.
Other highlights will include an imposing and rare landscape by the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Brett, whose highly detailed and visionary works helped redefine Victorian landscape painting.
Further landscape works include David Young Cameron’s dramatic rendering of Scotland’s rural scenery.
Modern British art is strongly represented through works by Graham Sutherland and Jacob Epstein, whose bronze bust of Romilly John (1907) departs from the artist’s characteristically rough-hewn sculptural realism.
There is also a rare early textile design by Eduardo Paolozzi for Hammer Prints, demonstrating the artist’s experimental engagement with post-war design and industry.
Decorative arts and design remain central to The Fine Art Society’s identity and the exhibition will include a Gothic Revival table by Augustus Pugin, an important work that reflects the gallery’s long-standing commitment to the Arts & Crafts movement and 19th-century design reformers.
Further notable works will be a tapestry by Gerald Laing, produced during the artist’s early experimental Scottish period and a rare textile by Edmund Dulac, who was commissioned to design the smoking room for the luxury liner Empress of Britain.
Contemporary ceramics and sculpture will play a major role in the exhibition, led by Philip Eglin’s colossal ceramic vessel Rosso (2024), recently shortlisted for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize.
Managing director, Emily Walsh, said the exhibition would be a microcosm of the Society’s history, encompassing the Victorian era and its Scottish genre paintings and Romantic landscapes, Pre-Raphaelites and the Neo-Gothic, the Aesthetic Movement and Arts and Crafts alongside Glasgow designers and British Impressionism, to the Scottish Colourists, Neo-Romanticism, Modernism and Pop Art.
“The Fine Art Society at 150 brings together an ambitious selection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, textiles and design spanning the Victorian period to the present day, reflecting the breadth, offbeat and vision that have defined the gallery since its founding in 1876,” she said.
“Intermingling throughout are living artists, borrowing from the past but making it new.”
Walsh added: “To get to this grand age we have endured the vicissitudes of time. To be here, to tell our tale, is the result of a hard travelled journey.
“This important 150th anniversary exhibition reflects The Fine Art Society’s enduring commitment to rediscovery, scholarship and artistic risk-taking across generations.
“The artworks, the artists, the collectors and enthusiasts, the conservators, the framers and all those who contribute to our ecosystem, inspire and enrich.”
The Fine Art Society at 150 will run from June 13 until August 31 at its centre in Dundas Street, Edinburgh.
