Details

Object type

painting

Title

South Western View from Ben Lomond

Artist/Maker

John Knox artist

Culture/School

Scottish

Place Associated

Scotland, Loch Lomond (place depicted)

Date

circa 1834

Materials

oil on canvas

Dimensions

framed: 843 mm x 1805 mm x 100 mm;unframed: 622 mm x 1575 mm

Description

This dramatic panorama from the summit of Ben Lomond is one of two painted by Knox around 1834 (see also North Western View from Ben Lomond, reference number 460). The diminutive figures give a sense of scale and awe at this vast mountain scene. Loch Lomond was a popular destination for tourists in the 19th century. In 1810 Walter Scott wrote that ‘every London citizen makes Loch Lomond his washpot, and throws his shoe over Ben Nevis.’ The cultural influence of Walter Scott and Robert Burns, and the epic poems of Ossian (James Macpherson) were also important in the growing attraction of the Highlands in the popular imagination.

Knox was a Paisley-born artist, the son of a yarn-manufacturer, and a follower of Alexander Nasmyth. A regular exhibitor at the Glasgow Dilettanti Society, he was extremely influential in the development of Scottish landscape and panorama painting. His works are notable for their drama and precision, particularly in their treatment of light, structure and detail. From 1828 to 1836 he was in London, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and British Institution. Renowned painters Horatio McCulloch (1805–67) and Daniel Macnee (1806–82) were both his pupils and were much influenced by his work.

In 1810 Knox exhibited a panorama of Ben Lomond in temporary premises in Queen Street in Glasgow. It is thought that our paintings, exhibited in 1834, are a reduced, and split up, version of this single panorama. At the third Glasgow Dilettanti Society annual exhibition in 1829, Knox also exhibited a ‘Panoramic View from the Top of Ben Lomond’ (no. 93), which was marked ‘not for sale’.

Bequeathed by William Euing, 1874.

Credit Line/Donor

Bequeathed by William Euing, 1874

ID Number

448

Location

Kelvingrove Scottish Identity