The National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) and Glasgow City Council announce their first ever joint acquisition, In the Orchard, a major work of art by Sir James Guthrie (1859-1930).
Sir James Guthrie (1859-1930), In the Orchard, 1885-86. Purchased by the National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Museums with the assistance of NHMF and the Art Fund, 2012.
This seminal work was secured for £637,500 with the help of £423,358 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) and £62,983 from the Art Fund when it was auctioned at Sotheby’s on 13 November 2012.
Guthrie’s In the Orchard is one of the great masterpieces produced by the leading member of The Glasgow Boys, a loose-knit group of painters working at the end of the 19th century which included other such famous figures as E.A. Walton, George Henry and John Lavery. The group, who were initially rejected by the art establishment, shared broad artistic ideals of naturalism and much of their work was inspired by Glasgow’s surrounding villages and countryside. Guthrie in particular continued to reflect ‘realities’ of everyday Scottish rural life throughout his work whilst other members of the group diversified.
In the Orchard enjoyed early international fame, it was first unveiled alongside Lavery’s Tennis Party (Aberdeen Art Gallery) and Walton’s Day Dream (Scottish National Gallery) and was declared as ‘one of the most important works by Glasgow artists’. Exhibited in Glasgow (1887) and Edinburgh (1888), it achieved international fame at the Paris Salon (1889) and at the Munich international exhibition of 1890. Both Glasgow Museums and the National Galleries of Scotland have significant holdings of The Glasgow Boys work so it is highly appropriate that the painting should be shared between the two public institutions. It was also one of the highlights of the recent highly successful exhibition Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys shown at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow and the Royal Academy, London 2010-11.
The paintingwill now be shared equally by the NGS and Glasgow Museums and, after being shown in both Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2012-13, be exhibited in each institution on a three year alternating basis. – www.nationalgalleries.org