William McTaggart, R.S.A., R.S.W.

Robert Craig Esq.;
Sale: Dowells, Edinburgh, 31 October 1874;
Sale: Christie's, London, 21 May 1903;
The Collection of McOmish Dott, 1917;
Sir John McTaggart Bt.;
Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh;
Private Collection

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1860, no. 159;
Edinburgh, Aitken Dott & Son, 1907;
Edinburgh, Bourne Fine Art, 1988, no. 1;
Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland (at the Royal Scottish Academy), 1989, no. 13

James Caw, William McTaggart, pp. 26-31 & 224, illus. p. 28;
Lindsay Errington, William McTaggart 1835-1910, 1989, pp. 28-33, illus. pl. 25;
Per Kvaerne, William McTaggart 1835-1910: Singing Songs of the Scottish Heart, Edinburgh, 2007, pp. 53-7

The canvas has been lined. The surface of the canvas is slightly undulated. There is some very minor craquelure and some minor paint separation in places. Otherwise this work is in good condition. Ultraviolet light reveals some areas of retouching and infilling to the sky area, to the walls in the background and to areas of the foreground. There are some further suggestions of light retouching to some areas around the figures and around the signature. Held in a decorative gold painted frame in fair condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

"His most important picture this year, at once larger and more complex than any he had yet attempted, represented four boys and a girl engaged in the ploy of building a house with bricks left by a mason in a burial-place beside the sea. The figures, however, though studied there also, were painted, like those in his other early pictures, principally in his father's garden in the town, where his younger brother, his sisters, and their friends were more easily available as models." (James Caw, William McTaggart, p.26)

Although William McTaggart was academically trained in the Antique and Life Classes of the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, in 1857 the opportunity to study Pre-Raphaelite works at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition caused him to adopt much more intense colours and carefully worked textures for his figure subjects. Two paintings by Holman Hunt – The Hireling Shepherd (Manchester) and Strayed Sheep (Tate) – seem particularly to have impressed him, while in 1858 he may also have given close study to Millais's The Blind Girl (Birmingham), shown that year at the Royal Scottish Academy. The influence of Pre-Raphaelitism seems also to have led McTaggart to poetic subjects with symbolical implications.

The first sketches for the present composition, as yet unnamed, were made at Campbeltown on Kintyre in the autumn of 1859. McTaggart used the ruined church and graveyard of Kilhousland, which stands on the east coast of Kintyre to the north of Campbeltown, as the immediate setting for the subject. From the first, a group of three boys were shown piling bricks, presumably recovered from broken tomb vaults, among the grave stones, and watched by other children. In the background is glimpsed the shadowy figure of an old man. The symbolism of the subject – the indifference of the young to the evidence of past lives – was implicit from the first commencement of the subject.

The project attracted the attention of Robert Craig, an early patron of the artist. In a series of letters Craig made various suggestions for changes to the composition, as for example on 29 September 1859, when he wrote, 'It occurs to me that the subject would be far more telling if instead of the house, you introduced a church or part of one, sufficient to convey that it really is a churchyard; the tombstones certainly suggests that, but the ordinary house like appearance of the building removes it again'. Craig went on to propose the title – '"The Past & Present" or something of that kind', as preferable to the painters own 'The Builders'. McTaggart acceded to some but not all of Craig's suggestions, introducing for example the Gothic arched doorway into the end wall of the church (which is much more elaborate than anything that actually exists at Kilhousland), and adopting the new title. Craig had taken an option on the work when he visited McTaggart on Kintyre, and did eventually buy it.

The painting was finished at McTaggart's studio in Howe Street in Edinburgh in the spring of 1860 and then shown that summer at the Royal Scottish Academy. "Mactaggart was in general an optimistic painter and his subject, which he himself - unlike Craig - thought of as The Builders, is awash with light and hope. Perhaps the most striking aspect of McTaggart's picture is, however, not the gently hinted subject, but its treatment. The delicate tonal interrelations, cast shadows and reflected lights, which he had learnt to observe in Lauder's antique classes, are now brought out of the studio into the strong summer light, and translated into bright colours. Only the areas of shadow, in the flesh, and on the darkened north wall of the church, are still treated with the transperent brown, traditional to Scottish art. In terms of its technique, his picture is indeed The Past and The Present. (Lindsay Errington, William McTaggart, p. 33)

The period of McTaggart's career when he shows Pre-Raphaelite influence, of his own accord as well as encouraged (or insisted upon) by importunate patrons, was short lived. By the late 1860s he was moving towards the immediately recognisable impressionistic style that he made so thoroughly his own.