Jack Vettriano | The Singing Butler / Il maggiordomo cantante

The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano is one such image which is now one of the most famous paintings of the last decade.

Few would not recognise the elegant sweep of limbs and the romantic theme of lovers dancing the night away in each other’s arms and this picture more than any other contemporary painting has captured the hearts and imagination of the public.

William Small | Victorian painter

William Small (1843-1929) was a Scottish illustrator and artist.

His works are held by art galleries in Leicester, Liverpool, London and Manchester and his illustrations in noted periodicals including: Once a week, Good Words, the The Graphic and Harpers.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes him as being considered the most successful illustrator of his time.

His style is typically Victorian.

Francis Henry Newbery | Glasgow School of Art

Francis Henry Newbery (1855-1946) or Fra Newbery was a painter and art educationist, best known as director of the Glasgow School of Art between 1885-1917.

Under his leadership the School developed an international reputation and was associated with the flourishing of Glasgow Style and the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle.

Newbery helped commission Mackintosh as architect for the now famous School of Art building and was actively involved in its design.

Peter Doig, 1959

Considered one of the most significant representational painters working today, Peter Doig has crafted a body of work that melds landscape, autobiography and personal style.

Doig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but as a very young child his family lived for several years in Trinidad, before ultimately relocating to Canada.

Early in his career, he studied at various institutions in London, including the Wimbledon School of Art, Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Chelsea School of Art, where he eventually earned his MA in 1990.

Denise Findlay, 1973

Denise Findlay was born into a family of incredible artistic pedigree.

Her Great Great grandfather was Fra Newbery, founder and director of Glasgow School of Art.

Fra was influential to Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the commissioning of the G.S.A. building.

He was married to Jessie (Rowat) Newbery.

Jessie was credited as being the originator of the famous 'Glasgow Rose' motif through her beautiful embroidered collars, belts and dresses.

Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933)

Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933) was a Scottish painter of landscapes, flowers and foliage, with children.

He was a cousin of James Hornell. His contemporaries in the Glasgow Boys called him Ned Hornel.

Hornel was born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia, of Scottish parents, and he was brought up and lived practically all his life in Scotland after his family moved back to Kirkcudbright in 1866.

Scottish Art History and Sitemap

Scottish art is the body of visual art made in what is now Scotland, or about Scottish subjects, since prehistoric times.

It forms a distinctive tradition within European art, but the political union with England has led its partial subsumation in British art.

The earliest examples of art from what is now Scotland are highly decorated carved stone balls from the Neolithic period.

From the Bronze Age there are examples of carvings, including the first representations of objects, and cup and ring marks.

Stanley Cursiter | Post-Impressionist painter

Bessie MacNicol (1869-1904)

Scottish painter Elizabeth MacNicol was born in Glasgow on the 17 July 1869 to a schoolmaster and his wife.

She attended Glasgow School of Art from 1887 until 1892 before travelling to Paris to study at the Academie Colarossi.

On her return to Scotland, MacNicol took on a studio in St Vincent Street and became closely associated with the circle of Glasgow Boys.

Dame Ethel Walker | Impressionist painter

Dame Ethel Walker DBE ARA (1861-1951) was a Scottish painter of portraits, flower-pieces, sea-pieces and decorative compositions.

From 1936, Walker was a member of The London Group.

Her work displays the influence of Impressionism, Puvis de Chavannes, Gauguin and Asian art.

Colin Fraser, 1956 | Egg tempera painter

Colin Fraser has long been established as one of the world's leading egg tempera painters.

Colin Fraser is a contemporary Scottish-born painter known for his detailed still lifes, landscapes, and interiors.

Fraser's use of egg-tempera gives his work a light-filled, translucent quality unequaled in other mediums, it is notoriously hard to control and seldom used by contemporary artists.

"It's a medium fraught with technical difficulties, but therein lies its charm.

Jack Morrocco, 1953 | Impressionist painter

Scottish painter Jack Morrocco was born Edinburgh. He studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee 1970-1974.

During the summer of 1973, Jack was selected to study at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath under the tutelage of Peter Blake.

On graduation he achieved a highly commended post diploma, the highest award possible at that time, he was also awarded the Farquhar Reid Travelling Scholarship 1975.

The scholarship enabled his to leave Scotland and he headed for Paris and Florence to study and he began a European love affair.

Duncan Grant | Post-Impressionist painter

Duncan Grant (1885-1978) was born at Rothiemurchus, Inverness-shire, the son of Major Bartle Grant and Ethel McNeill.

His childhood was spent in India.

He returned to Britain in 1893.

Although his family intended him to have an army career, he took up painting at the encouragement of the French painter Simon Bussy, entering the Westminster School of Art, London, in 1902.

Stanley Cursiter | Post-Impressionist painter

Stanley Cursiter (1887-1976) was an Orcadian artist who played an important role in introducing Post-impressionism and Futurism to Scotland.

He served as the keeper (1919-1930), then director (1930-1948), of the National Galleries of Scotland, and as HM Limner and Painter in Scotland (1948-1976).

He was born on 29 April 1887 at 15 East Road in Kirkwall, Orkney, the son of John Scott Cursiter and Mary Joan Thomson.

He was educated at Kirkwall Grammar School before moving to Edinburgh, where he studied at Edinburgh College of Art.

Martin Leighton, 1951 | Figurative painter

Born in Montrose Scotland, Martin has lived in Weymouth in the beautiful county of Dorset from the age of 2 years.

Martin is a self-taught artist specialising in oils on canvas and he has been painting professionally since 2003 when he opened his own gallery and working studio close to Weymouth harbour side, situated on the first floor of a beautifully converted Grade II listed building.

However the gallery closed in October 2016 to enable Martin to concentrate on new works for various exhibitions and commissions.

Robert Louis Stevenson | Winter Time / Tempo d'inverno

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,

A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;

Blinks but an hour or two; and then,

A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,

At morning in the dark I rise;

And shivering in my nakedness,

By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Bror Lindh (Swedish painter, 1877-1941) | Winter night, 1941

William Strang (1859-1921)

From National Galleries of Scotland:

During his lifetime, Dumbarton-born William Strang built up an international reputation as a highly skilled and imaginative printmaker, portraitist and painter.

His diverse subjects ranged from the fantastic to the very real, including uncompromising depictions of contemporary life and the effects of poverty and social injustice, landscapes, subjects from the bible, bewildering allegories, and narrative illustrations.

He was also a prolific and highly successful portraitist.

Anne Cotterill (1933-2010) | Flowers painter

Anne Cotterill was born in the Borders of Scotland, educated in Edinburgh and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1956 at the time when Sir William Gillies was head of painting.

She was awarded a postgraduate scholarship to continue her work in Edinburgh followed by a travelling scholarship to Europe that enabled her to study the work and technique of the great traditional painters.

Married life brought her to West Somerset in the early 1960s where the seasonal changes of the wildflowers in the surrounding countryside are a constant source of inspiration for her paintings.

John Duncan | Pre-Raphaelite / Symbolist painter

John Duncan (1866-1945) was a Scottish painter. Duncan was born in the Hilltown area of Dundee on 19 July 1866, the son of a butcher and cattleman. John, however, had no interest in the family business and preferred the visual arts.

By the age of 15 he was submitting cartoons to the local magazine "The Wizard of the North" and was later taken on as an assistant in the art department of the Dundee Advertiser. At the same time he was also a student at the Dundee School of Art, then based at the High School of Dundee.

In 1887-88 he worked in London as a commercial illustrator, then travelled to the continent to study at Antwerp Academy under Charles Verlat and the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

In 1889 Duncan returned to Dundee and exhibited in the new Victoria Art Galleries extension of the Albert Institute. The following year he became one of the founder members of the Dundee Graphic Arts Association (now Dundee Art Society).

John Duncan | Tristan and Isolde, 1912

Robert Fowler | Victorian painter

Robert Fowler (1853-1926) was an Scottish artist who painted mythological scenes and landscapes. Fowler was born in Anstruther, Fife, and was brought up mainly by his uncle and aunt while his parents were away on business. He showed a very early aptitude for art, starting first with pencil drawings then moving on to painting and clay modelling.

His family moved to Liverpool and Fowler went to school at Liverpool College. At the age of 16, he found employment in a commercial office where his talent for art was recognised by his employer, who encouraged Fowler's parents to send him to art school.

Fowler went to London to study at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and the South Kensington Schools.

Jack Vettriano, 1951 | Love Story

Jack Vettriano was born in Fife, Scotland. After leaving school at 15, he followed his father down the mine, working as an apprentice engineer. He later moved on to white-collar jobs in management services.

Vettriano took up painting as a hobby in the 1970s when a girlfriend bought him a set of watercolours for his birthday and from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.

He learned his craft by copying Old Masters, Impressionists, Surrealists and a plethora of Scottish artists.