JOHN MACLAUCHLAN MILNE

MILNE CATAL_Layout 1 12/05/2010 02:30 Page 1 JOHN MACLAUCHLAN MILNE 1885 - 1957 MILNE CATAL_Layout 1 12/05/2010 02:30 Page 2 The Life and Works of...
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JOHN MACLAUCHLAN MILNE 1885 - 1957

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The Life and Works of

JOHN MACLAUCHLAN MILNE 17 J UN E - 9 J ULY 2 0 10

Mon d ay – Fri d a y 10 a m – 6 p m Fig.1

I am conscious of being at once a Scotsman and a European - when I’m not aware only of being a painter. A smaller selection of paintings will be exhibited at Bourne Fine Art 6 Dundas Street, Edinburgh from 14 - 27 July 2010

PORTLAND GALLE RY 8 BENNET STREET T E L E P H O N E 020 7493 1888





LONDON SW1A 1RP

F A X 020 7499 4353



EMAIL [email protected]

www.portlandgallery.com Front Cover

Boats on the Seine (Pont Marie)

Oil

14 x 18 ins

Catalogue no.8

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FOREWORD

A contemporary of The Colourists, John Maclauchlan Milne seems somehow to have been unfairly overlooked in the history of Twentieth Century Scottish art. Since his death in 1957 there has been only one public gallery that has held an exhibition of his work – in Dundee (his home city) in 1985. No commercial gallery has had a show devoted to his work. This is certainly not because he lacked patrons or official recognition in his life-time; far from it. William Boyd, Matthew Justice, Tom Honeyman, Alexander Kieller, Gilbert Innes and James Tattersall were among the most influential Scottish modern art collectors of the day and all acquired Milne’s work and hung it alongside their French impressionist and post impressionist paintings. The Royal Scottish Academy showed over ninety of his paintings over a forty-five year period and elected him as an academician in 1937. He showed some work with Alexander Reid in Glasgow and then with the Lefevre Gallery in London in 1929. The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, sold paintings of Milne’s in 1940s. Public collections also purchased his work while he lived. These collectors recognised Milne’s talent as a colourist, with his own distinctive French inspired style. So what was it that consigned Milne to relative obscurity in the fifty years since his death? That he was a relatively private man who preferred to sell directly from his studio and who mainly avoided official dealer representation cannot have helped. There are no personal records of the paintings he made or to whom he sold them; nor are there any meaningful records of the hugely influential fifteen or so years (1920-35) when much of his time was spent in France. There are a few contemporary newspaper reviews which mention his work but, overall, there is little information about Milne until he moved to Arran in the early 1940s. What becomes clear from family and friends who knew him is that Milne was full of the joy of life, but was most comfortable within a small social circle. He loved to recite poetry and sing, for it was then that he lost his stutter. He had his own artistic vision which made Arran harbours and landscapes almost indistinguishable from those he had so inspirationally portrayed in Provence and at St. Tropez in particular. It was the almost Gauguin-esque view of Brodick Bay in Arran (cat.75) which first introduced me to Milne’s work. I bought the painting in Glasgow in 1986; it was a favourite in our home for the next ten years. Once introduced to Milne’s work, I sought it out thereafter. Coming across occasional paintings at auction never provided enough work to mount a comprehensive exhibition, especially as the paintings which I bought always found ready buyers. Finally, though, the urge to share Milne’s work with a much wider audience was too much and this exhibition was organised to pay tribute to Milne and his work, and to show why a reevaluation of it is long overdue. It is mainly a loan exhibition and we are very grateful to those who have so kindly agreed to allow us to show their paintings. Tom Hewlett, Director, Portland Gallery

1. Orchards, Normandie Signed and dated 1918 Watercolour 10 x 14 ins

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INTRODUCTION

The development of art in Scotland from the late 19th-century onwards is regularly described in terms of its connections with continental European art. The realism of the Glasgow School of the 1880s and its relationship with the Hague School and the rural French artist colonies of the same period, the friendships between Mackintosh and his Viennese contemporaries in the years around 1900, and the links between Scottish painters and Post-Impressionism in Paris in the years before the First World War, all demonstrate the flow of ideas between creative Scottish minds and their wider European counterparts. The impact of painting as it developed in France at the beginning of the 20th century was felt by numerous Scottish artists, but recent history has tended to emphasise the importance of a few above others. John Maclauchlan Milne might be seen as one of those others, but an examination of his career within the context of his Scottish contemporaries reveals a more complex history and a considerable artistic talent. Those Scottish artists who were in Paris in the years before 1910, such as Peploe and Fergusson, were fortunate in witnessing the first exhibitions of Fauve painting, as it was developed by Matisse and Derain, as well as being able to see important retrospective exhibitions of work by Gauguin, Cézanne and Van Gogh. The subject matter of those French artists’ work - still life, landscape, the interior, figure painting (albeit highly exotic in the case of Gauguin, or with an underlying symbolism in that of Van Gogh) - was not unfamiliar, but their radical approach, which pushed art away from naturalistic representation and towards a highly personal vision, represented an artistic freedom that left few painters of that time untouched. Scottish artists whose careers began in the late 19th century were already accustomed to the idea of travelling to the Continent, where they could benefit from study in the French atelier system and absorb what they saw around them. For Milne, who was born in Fife in 1885 and is presumed to have been taught by his father and uncle the artists Joseph Milne and William Watt Milne, travel to France would have seemed an obvious step for one who, when aged eighteen, registered himself as ‘artist’. This classification, however, was made by the young Milne not at a Paris academy, but instead on a ship from Glasgow bound for Canada, where Milne arrived in 1903. It is unknown why Milne took this independent step, other than he would have been among the wider Scottish exodus looking across the Atlantic for a better future. Milne is reputed to have had a colourful time in Canada, working as a cowboy while attempting to follow an artistic career, and facing the same sort of hardship that the young George Leslie Hunter (1879-1931) experienced as an artist in California during the same years. Both, coincidentally, returned permanently to Europe at approximately the same time, in 1907. As a consequence of these years away during such a formative period in his career, Milne had little opportunity to experience the sort of avant-garde art under development in France. By contrast, the admittedly more senior John Duncan Fergusson (1874-1961) and Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) had by 2. Normandie

then developed a close connection with the French capital, based there from 1907 and 1910 respectively,

Signed and dated 1918 Watercolour 14 x 10 ins

and becoming part of the international community of artists who adopted a Fauve style. Both Fergusson’s

Provenance: Private collection

(1887-1976). Cursiter’s particular interest in the most progressive art led to the inclusion of Picasso,

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and Peploe’s new work made an impact in London and Edinburgh before the War, where it was almost certainly seen by Milne, Hunter, and contemporaries such as F.C.B. Cadell (1883-1937) and Stanley Cursiter

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Matisse, Gauguin and the Italian Futurists among others at the 1913 Edinburgh exhibition of the Society

him to a stronger light that brought a sharper definition to the paintings he subsequently produced. The

of Scottish Artists. By this time Milne, who had recently married and was based in Dundee, had just

French Mediterranean was then a regular haunt for Scottish artists, attracted by the climate, brilliant light

begun to exhibit his work in Edinburgh; the titles of these early paintings however suggest a conservative

and modest cost of living. Mackintosh was working exclusively as a painter in quiet isolation on the

approach as yet untouched by modernist art. During the War years, when Milne served in France, he

French/Spanish border at Port Vendres and Collioure and in the Pyrenees. The young James McIntosh

found some time to paint; works such as Harbour Scene of 1916 (cat.4) demonstrates clearly that he

Patrick, Ian Fleming and William Wilson visited the area around Nimes and Avignon, producing outstanding

had inherited the painterly ability of his father, but had not yet moved on from a type of work

etchings. Anne Redpath was based at St Raphael from 1928 (where she was visited by William Crozier and

characteristic of the late 19th century, in its preoccupation with pastoral subjects carried out in an

William MacTaggart), and Peploe, Fergusson, Cadell and Hunter (the latter described by Milne as a good

impressionistic manner. In smaller studies judged to be of the same period however, Milne’s brushwork

friend) all spent time working in the surrounding area throughout the 1920s. Milne’s art soon drew the

becomes bolder, and although the studies’ distant perspective means they retain a sense of 19th-century

attention of the dealers Reid & Lefevre, whose founder Alexander Reid had given Peploe, Fergusson and

picturesque, they anticipate the subsequent loosening of his style.

Hunter their first solo exhibitions before the War and who was instrumental in bringing those three artists’ work together with that of Cadell in a first joint exhibition, held in Paris in 1924.

In 1919 Milne received favourable reviews for two works he exhibited in Dundee showing the Belgian and French countryside. By the following year he was in Paris, staying in the Rue des Quatre-Vents, near

By this time, Milne had already enjoyed some commercial success, especially in Dundee, where a number

the Luxembourg Gardens on the Left Bank. His work was immediately affected by his experience of that

of wealthy collectors including Alexander Keiller, Matthew Justice and William Boyd sought out the work

city, reawakening to artistic life following occupation, and especially by a greater encounter with the

of French Post-Impressionists, as well as patronising leading local artists, including Milne. A solo

work of Cézanne, which ‘immediately conquered’ him. In the ensuing decade, much of Milne’s time

exhibition at Reid & Lefevre’s Glasgow gallery in 1928, newly run by Tom Honeyman (who later wrote

was spent in France, although he seems to have returned regularly to his studio base in Dundee. In 1922

on Milne), was followed in 1929 by inclusion in a group show in the dealer’s London premises.

it is likely that he took a studio in Lavardin on the Loire, and from around 1925 onwards was frequently

Dedicated to ‘The Younger Glasgow Group’, it is not clear why the east-coast based Milne and Crozier

on the Côte d’Azur.

found their way into company which included the Glasgow artists Robert Sivell, George Telfer Bear, Archibald McGlashan, and James Cowie. For the gallery, it may have been a convenient label under

Milne’s work from those French years is often undated, and while we can be guided by his new

which to bring a group of younger, untested Scottish artists to the attention of a London audience,

destinations in France by the titles of his works (which he regularly submitted to the annual exhibitions

most likely knowledgeable of the successes of the older Glasgow School. Those that visited may have

in Glasgow and Edinburgh) it is problematic establishing a precise chronology that helps explain his

also identified a common trait among that group: while artists such as Cowie and Sivell were less

development and movement during this period. What is clear is the variety of approach he took to

interested in recent French painting than those such as Crozier and Milne, all of those artists’

differing formats of painting. The cool tones in his studies of Seine barges made in his first year in Paris

compositions were underpinned by a strong sense of design. Thus, although Milne’s paintings of the

(cat.8 & 9) gives way to a dynamic application of brilliant colour in a smaller panel (cat.7) which features

south of France bear many of the hallmarks that must have attracted Reid and Honeyman to the work

the scene around the Eglise de la Madeleine in a manner reminiscent of Peploe’s and Fergusson’s bold

of Cadell and Hunter from the same period, Milne’s art tends to emphasise the underlying solidity and

studies made in Paris ten years earlier. In the larger works of the same period, Milne practised a more

structure of the Mediterranean villages he commonly portrayed, rather than defining forms by means

restrained technique, in which draughtsmanship is of equal importance to colour. The trees that are

of brilliant colour contrasts, as did Cadell, or, as was Hunter’s tendency, through a loose network of

such a characteristic of Paris’s public spaces were regularly utilized to bring a rhythm to play across the

expressively applied brushstrokes.

surface of compositions such as the fashionable scene of a concert in the Tuilieries (cat.11). This device also appeared in Milne’s French rural painting, for example Champs aux Chèvres (cat.17). In that work

In 1930 Milne’s work was again shown in London, at the Independent Gallery, from which a painting

the broader passages of muted, outlined colour and the subject’s quiet mood aligns it and others such

was acquired by the French state for the Musée de Luxembourg (further work by Hunter, Peploe and

as Rooftops, Lavardin (cat.16) more closely with the art of Gauguin than with the expressiveness of the

Fergusson was acquired for the Luxembourg the following year). Shortly afterwards Milne’s trips to

Fauves. In the way that Gauguin and his associates were drawn to Pont Aven by its natural beauty and

France were curtailed by the worsening economic and political situation in Europe, and from around

their sense of its unspoilt simplicity, so the medieval village of Lavardin is likely to have appealed to

1932 he remained based in Scotland, turning his attention to the Scottish landscape. Visits to the west

Milne. The pictures he executed there attest to the fact that modernist Scottish painting could be more

Highlands were frequently made in the company of his friend and patron the Dundonian businessman

diverse than that of Peploe, Fergusson, Cadell and Hunter, whose colourist approach has come to typify

Fred Lawson, whose adapted war ambulance served as a caravan. As with the younger artists William

Scottish art of the period.

Gillies and John Maxwell (who worked extensively across the west coast of Scotland during this period), the dramatic highland scenery and rugged coastal landscape was well suited to Milne’s graphic ability

Milne’s move to the south coast of France from 1925, where he based himself at St Tropez, introduced

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and gave fresh impetus to his art. Milne’s paintings of the coast at Morar (cat.46), the Lairig Ghru and

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the more northerly Sutherland landscape (cat.54 and 55) have a muscular grandeur and lean mood quite different from the intimacy and colourist tendency of his St Tropez scenes. Iona too became a favourite painting ground, and on a trip to another of the southern Scottish islands, Arran, a meeting with a resident, the younger Elsie MacKellar, decided Milne on a permanent move there. The picturesque villages of Corrie and Sannox became regular subjects, but his most imposing statements take in the fuller grandeur of the island. Milne understood the remarkable pictorial qualities of the Highland Scottish landscape; its tendency to transform from cultivated farmland to brooding mountain scene within the same frame offered a fitting challenge to painters such as Milne, who were able to reconcile and bring together such variety in a unified and expressive design. Milne’s ability to do this in major compositions such as Goatfell and Arran Croft (cat.58 and 59) leaves behind his association with francophile colourist painting of the 1920s and results in work, which like the brooding mountainous landscapes of D.Y. Cameron and fastidious detail in the oils of James McIntosh Patrick, resulted in paintings which deserve wider recognition as some of the most striking representations of the Scottish scene produced in the last century. Philip Long, Senior Curator, National Galleries of Scotland

Fig.2

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THE PAINTINGS

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4. Harbour Scene Signed and dated 1916 Oil 20 x 26 ins Provenance: Mr & Mrs F. C. Lawson, Dundee By descent

3. A Fife Landscape Signed and dated 1920 Oil 40 x 50 ins

Constant themes in Milne's work are harbour and riverside scenes. As a young man, he painted the harbours on the East Coast and the river Tay. In Paris he painted barges unloading on the Seine, in the South of France he captured the harbour at St. Tropez where the wineboats loaded their barrels and then in the 1940s and '50s he painted the peaceful little harbours at Corrie and Ferry Rock on Arran where the rowing boats would tranship provisions.

Provenance: Purchased by Dundee Art Galleries and Museums (The Morris Trust Fund, 1924)

This painting appears to be dated 1916. The central boat has the letters KY for Kirckaldy which links it to the East Neuk ports between Fifeness and Leven along the Fife coast. The harbour is likely to be Pittenweem or Anstruther as both were lively centres of activity in the early Twentieth Century.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Dundee Art Galleries and Museums (Dundee City Council)

This early painting shows Milne working in the traditional manner which he inherited from his father and uncle. The

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subject of men at work (fisherman, shepherds, cow-herds and mussel and kelp gatherers) is routed in the Dutch tradition as is the rich palette with dark shadows and golden light. The painting shows a degree of confidence in the painterliness and boldness of brush-strokes but at this stage in his career Milne had not found his artistic vision and his love of colour. The bravura of this painting is in contrast to his very early works which are more tentative and delicately painted. Milne would have been familiar with the work of William McTaggart and was in the process of absorbing a more expressive style. Milne's study of children playing in rock pools from around the same time (see cat. no.5) reinforce the impression that both McTaggart as well as Gemmell Hutchison influenced his style and palette at this time.

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5. Children on the Shore

6. Breakers

Signed Oil 10 x 14 ins

Signed Oil 10 x 14 ins

Provenance: Private collection

Provenance: Private collection

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7. Eglise de la Madeleine, Paris Signed Oil 13 x 10 ins Provenance: Sotheby's, August 1984 Private collection ‘The Parisian street scenes of the immediate post-Armistice period are touching in their evocation of an explosive release of optimism. Their high-keyed effervescence stands in strong contrast to the placid atmospheric works which preceded them’ ¹ Milne preferred to focus on landscape painting rather than figurative painting. Indeed there are no known portraits or purely figurative studies by the artist. In busy Paris however, figures appeared more often in his paintings, although always as part of the general composition rather than the central subject. By portraying the Parisians in bright red or yellow coats with blue hats and pink umbrellas, Milne was able to introduce splashes of vivid colour which were picked up in the café awnings and vehicles. In Paris Milne began to embrace the avante-garde love of exaggerated colour. These works were his first ‘colourist paintings’. The Concert, Jardin des Tuileries makes an interesting comparison with Fergusson’s paintings of Paris concerts such as Café-Concert des Ambassadeurs, 1907 (Tate, London). The Paris oils appear to have been executed with rapid brush-strokes suggesting they were likely to have been painted en pleine air. The small size of the panels from this period would also imply Milne was walking around the city, visiting the famous sights of Montmartre, Notre-Dame, Place de la Concorde and the bridges of the Seine, carrying his painting equipment with him.

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8. Boats on the Seine (Pont Marie)

9. Unloading at a Paris Quay (Pont Marie)

Signed and dated 1920 Oil 14 x 18 ins

Signed Oil 14 x 18 ins

Provenance:

Provenance:

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Phillips, July 1980 Portland Gallery Private collection

Phillips, July 1980 Portland Gallery Private collection

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11. Concert, Jardins des Tuileries, Paris 10. A Paris Street Signed and dated 1922 Oil 15 x 18 ins Provenance: The Property of Mrs Nancy Fraser Turner, her sale, Christie's, April, 1987 Exhibited:

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Possibly R.G.I. 1922, no.355 as Rue Royale, Paris

Signed Oil 15 x 18 ins Provenance: Perth Museum and Art Gallery (donated by Miss M. D. Scott Murray and Mr P. Murray of Scone in 1972) Reproduced by kind permission of Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth and Kinross Council

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12. Fontaine du Palmier, Place du Chatelet, Paris

13. A Boating Pond, Paris

Signed and dated 1920 Oil 20 x 24 ins

Signed Oil 15 x 18 ins

Provenance: Lyon & Turnbull, December 2008 Private collection

Provenance: Acquired directly by a friend of the artist By descent

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14. Paris Signed Oil 15 x 18 ins Provenance: Acquired directly by a friend of the artist By descent

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15. Paysage, Lavardin Signed Oil 40 x 50 ins Provenance: Bourne Fine Art The Ellis Campbell Group Exhibited:

R.S.A. 1924

By 1922 Milne probably had a studio in the medieval village of Lavardin near Tours. It is not known how Milne discovered the village but the beauty of Lavardin and the surrounding countryside must have appealed to him. The architecture of the village features a medieval chateaux, a fourteenth century bridge and the eleventh century church of Saint-Genest, which is seen in the background of this painting. The village is set within the stunning scenery of the Loire valley. In contrast to the small panels Milne had used in Paris, he started to paint on a larger scale in Lavardin. These bigger paintings suggest that while in Lavardin Milne was becoming increasingly ambitious. A series of photographs, from about the same time, (probably taken for a Dundee newspaper) show the artist posed at his easel, dressed impeccably with jacket, shirt and bow-tie with a traditional white smock coat over the top, poised as though about to apply the final brush-stroke to a canvas. The photographs are clearly set-up with the finished painting on the easel is a large landscape of Lavardin already framed and clearly not a work in progress (see fig. 2 & 8)

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17. Champs aux Chèvres

16. Rooftops, Lavardin Signed Oil 15 x 18 ins Provenance: The artist’s family By descent

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Signed and dated 1920 Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: James Gauldie, Edinburgh By descent Reproduction with kind permission of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, on loan from a private collection in memory of John Lyon Gauldie (1914-1998)

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18. Provençal Landscape Signed and dated 1927 Oil 30 x 38 ins Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist’s family circa 1970 by a private collector ‘Like Peploe, he saw Cézanne and was immediately conquered….Here in the Midi, Milne found himself and the impact of this new experience stamped all his subsequent work’.² The mountains in the distance of this painting are formed of limestone, typical of Provence. The limestone Mont St. Victoire from the same region had been painted many times by Cézanne and in this painting one sees the influence of the French Impressionist on the young Scottish painter. When commenting on Milne’s work, contemporary art critics repeatedly referred to the influence of Cézanne and Milne himself discussed his work in an interview (see page 96). One of the critics implied that Cézanne had too strong an influence on Milne: “Maclauchlan Milne appears in the light of a renegade, who betrays the old faith to burn incense at the shrine of Cézanne. It seems almost impossible for a modern painter to work in Provence without dimming his personal vision by looking through Cézanne’s spectacles.” ³ The majority of critics, however, appreciated Cézanne's positive influence: ‘A marked strength and freedom of handling has accompanied this new vision. Landscape is no longer a pretty pattern on a flat canvas, but something massive and solid, far receding and permeated with atmosphere…the quality of “volume” so difficult to express is here seized upon with amazing success.’ 4

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19. St Tropez

20. Provence

Signed Watercolour and conté 14 x 10 ins

Signed Watercolour and conté 14 x 10 ins

Provenance: James Tattersall By descent

Provenance: James Tattersall By descent

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21. Palm Trees, Côte d'Azur Signed Watercolour and conté 15 x 11 ins Provenance: Drambuie Collection; their sale Lyon and Turnbull, January 2006 Illustrated:

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Dustjacket illustration for V.S.Pritchett's 'At Home and Abroad', 1990, published by Chatto & Windus

22. Boats Unloading, Côte d’Azur Signed Watercolour and conté 11 x 15 ins Provenance: William Boyd By descent

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23. Provençal Town

24. St Tropez

Signed Watercolour and conté 10 x 14 ins

Signed and dated 1924 Oil 20 x 24 ins

Provenance: Private collection

Provenance: Ian MacNicol, Glasgow Private collection

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25. Cassis

26. Town in Provence

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Signed Oil 20 x 16 ins

Provenance: Portland Gallery Private collection

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‘Environment counts for much in the life of an artist, and here he found himself one of a band of eager artists surrounded by colourful landscape’. 5

Provenance: Lyon and Turnbull, 2007 Private collection

The architectural design of the church tower seen in this painting, with its long arched windows and almost flat roof together with the town wall suggests this is most likely a view of St. Paul de Vence. Milne painted a number of views of the town, which had been made famous by Chagall, Matisse and other artists. Hunter, with whom Milne became particularly close, had made St. Paul his base. Hunter rented a studio adjacent to the Auberge de la Colombe d'Or from where he wrote; 'I like this country very much and am sorry I did not come here six years ago in place of going to Fife. I feel six months here was worth six years there... This is a painter’s country’. 6

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27. Interior

28. Village Square, Provence

Signed Oil 22 x 18 ins

Signed Oil 22 x 18 ins

Provenance: Sotheby's 1998 Private collection

Provenance: Bonham’s Private collection

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29. Palms, St Tropez

30. Balcony, South of France

Signed and dated 29 Oil 24 x 20 ins

Signed Oil 24 x 20 ins

Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist’s family circa 1970 by a private collector

Provenance: Portland Gallery Private collection

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31. Orchard and Sheep

32. Haymaking

Signed Oil 20 x 28 ins

Signed and dated 31 Oil 20 x 26 ins

Provenance: Acquired directly by a friend of the artist By descent

Provenance: Christie's, October 2003 Private collection

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33. Café, South of France Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Private collection Exhibited:

Possibly R.G.I. 1925 as St Tropez Bar

‘It is difficult keeping pace with Mr Maclauchlan Milne’ wrote a Dundee newspaper. ‘A year ago he was painting Scottish fields with soft sunlight and mellow atmosphere. Then Paris seized him, and he gave us canvases splashed with vivid colour, radiating gaiety and the joy of life. Now he has drunk “a beaker full of the warm South” and has brought back from the azure shore pictures that palpitate with hot sunlight and dazzle with their audacious colour’. The brilliance of the light, the blue shutters as well as the type of trees suggest that this is a painting of a café in Provence. It is a delightful image of French café culture. A maid walks a dog holding a parasol above her, people relax in the shade of the café seeking respite from the hot Provençal sun, and a waiter appears carrying a tray. On the road behind the café square a brightly coloured vehicle is parked and in the square a kiosk is pasted with advertisements. Milne has framed the bright sunlight in the centre of the scene with the darker colours of the trees and shadows. This has the effect of creating a balanced composition and helps lead the eye of the viewer into and through the scene. This painting is reminiscent of Fergusson’s café paintings. The distinctive difference is that Milne’s reflect the more relaxed atmosphere of southern France whereas Fergusson famously captured the hustle and bustle of Parisian society.

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35. Wine Boats, St Tropez 34. St Tropez Harbour Signed Oil 16 x 24 ins Provenance: The artist’s family By descent

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Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Acquired from the artist circa 1956 By descent

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37. Boats Unloading Signed Oil 15 x 18 ins Provenance: Acquired from the family of the artist, circa 1970 by a private collector

36. Quayside, St Tropez Signed Oil 30 x 38 ins Provenance: Portland Gallery David Messum Fine Art Private collection

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38. St Tropez Signed Watercolour and conté 12 x 16 ins

Provenance: Portland Gallery Private collection

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40. Quayside, St Tropez Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist By descent 39. St Tropez Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Acquired by McLean Museum and Art Gallery (Stuart Anderson Caird Bequest, 1948) Reproduced with kind permission of McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Inverclyde Council

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‘To step from the cold rigours of a March [Dundee] into the studio at No. 132 is to obtain a Riviera holiday without a tedious journey in the Train Blue’ writes a journalist in the 1920s. ‘St. Tropez, which was Mr Milne’s painting ground, pushes its bold promontory into the sea not far from Cannes, and all the glories of flowery land and purple sea gleam from canvases’. St. Tropez had already attracted a number of writers and artists by the time Milne arrived but it was still a sleepy harbour town (it wasn't until the 1950's that the town was

transformed, under the influence of the actress Brigitte Bardot, into a playground for the rich and famous). When painting the harbour at St. Tropez Milne usually positioned himself out on the pier looking back towards the town with the hills and Citadel of St Tropez in the distance (as seen in this painting). The wine boats would arrive and Milne captured the brightly painted vessels loading their barrels at the sun-drenched pier. St Tropez appears to be the first place at which Milne stayed on the Cote d'Azur. He continued to exhibit paintings of the town at the R.S.A. and R.G.I. up until 1954. We do not know when Milne made his last trip to France but travel to the Côte d'Azur during the Second World War would have been extremely difficult. Whether the French paintings he exhibited in the latter years of his life were works that he’d kept in his studio, or whether they were new works painted from memory is not known.

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41. Sunflowers Signed Oil 30 x 20 ins Provenance: The artist’s family By descent ‘He is more interested in weaving the colour into an overall pattern of forms. He is not very interested in the texture of the flowers, but he is anxious to show how, in paint, they can be transformed into a colourful design’.7 Milne first exhibited a still life painting at the R.G.I. and S.S.A. in 1927 and judging by the French titles (Fleurs, Nature Morte, Le Regime de Legumes) these paintings were likely to have been executed in France. From the earthy colours and vigorous technique, one could deduce that Cézanne had more of an influence on these works than Milne’s contemporaries, Peploe, Hunter and Cadell. Milne’s still life painting is rustic and earthy in the same way that Cézanne painted ruddy oranges and earthenware pots on a kitchen table. Milne’s work in this genre is also seemingly less arranged than either that of Cézanne, Peploe, Cadell and Hunter. Unlike the Colourists, he tended not to place the objects on artfully arranged drapes, rather they appear in their natural settings. The curtains in the background of Milne’s paintings are genuinely hanging rather than draped at an angle to best suit the composition. In one of his more ambitious still life paintings (cat. no.47), Milne has included a mirror which reflects the interior of the room. The window, chair and table are cleverly obscured so as to fade into the background.

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42. Roses

43. Vase of Roses on a Table

Signed Oil 24 x 20 ins

Signed Oil 24 x 20 ins

Provenance:

56

Private collection

Provenance:

Private collection

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44. Still Life with Blossom Signed Oil 24 x 20 ins Provenance: Private collection Portland Gallery Private collection

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45. Still Life with Tulips Signed Oil 24 x 20 ins Provenance: Matthew Justice By descent

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46. Sands of Morar Signed and dated 37 Oil 36 x 48 ins Provenance: The Royal Scottish Academy, 1937 Presented by the artist as his Diploma work on his election as a full member of the R.S.A. Reproduced with kind permission of the R.S.A.

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Like his contemporaries, Cadell, Hunter and Peploe, Milne was particularly drawn to the Hebridean island of Iona. The white sands, the blues and greens of the water and the clear light appealed to the artists in the same way that the brilliant warm light and azure seas of the South of France had attracted them. Milne may have painted there alongside Peploe and Cadell in the early 1930s and would certainly have been familiar with their Iona paintings.

47. Iona Signed Oil 14 x 16 ins Provenance: Given by the artist to the current owner as a wedding present

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As well as exploring the shores of Iona, Milne painted along the coast of the narrow sea channel, the Sound of Sleat, which separates Skye from the mainland. From the silver sands at Morar, Milne set up his easel looking across to the Isle of Eigg and from the village of Glenelg he painted the shore with Skye in the background. In contrast to the rather refined Iona landscapes by Cadell and Peploe, Milne emphasises the wildness of the islands by his more rugged and energetic technique.

48. Iona, the South End Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Private collection Portland Gallery

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50. Cathedral Rock, Iona 49. Ben More, Mull, from Iona Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: T. & R. Annan, Glasgow Private collection By descent

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Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Mr & Mrs F.C. Lawson By descent Exhibited:

Centenary Exhibition, Dundee City Galleries, 1985, no.28

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51. Picnicing, North Shore, Iona

52. Iona, Looking towards Mull

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Provenance: Christie's, 2006 Private collection

Provenance: The artist’s family By descent

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54. Durness 53. The White Strand, Iona Signed and dated 37 Oil 20 x 24 ins

Signed Oil 15 x 18 ins Provenance: Private collection

Provenance: Sotheby's, 2004 Private collection

68

Exhibited:

Possibly S.S.A.1933

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55. Landscape, Sutherland Signed Oil 36 x 48 ins Provenance: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (bequest of Mr W. W. Frisken of Dundee, through Mrs Frisken, 1967) Reproduced with kind permision of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

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57. Sannox Bay, Arran Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Mr and Mrs W. S. Sime By descent Fig. 3

56. Cornfield, Sannox, Arran Signed and dated 44 Oil 28 x 36 ins Provenance: Phillips, 1988 Private collection Exhibited:

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Possibly R.G.I. 1945

It was supposedly on this beach that Milne met his second wife Elsie in the early 1940s. According to Milne’s relatives, Elsie was walking along the beach with her sister when she saw a dapper looking gentleman, wearing tweed and smoking a pipe, walking towards them. They stopped to greet each other and introduce themselves. On parting, Elsie turned to her sister and said ‘I am going to marry that man’. In 1946 Milne and Elsie married. From different points on the hillside near High Corrie, Milne painted the view down to Sannox Bay. The distant hills across the water are on the Island of Bute. Out of view to the west (left of Fig.3) lie Glen Sannox and the peak of Cir Mhor.

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59. An Arran Croft 58. Goatfell, Arran

Signed and dated 44 Oil 28 x 36 ins

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Provenance: Private collection

Provenance: Private collection

Exhibited:

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Possibly R.S.A. 1944

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61. Harvest Field, Arran

60. Harvest Field, High Corrie, Arran

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Provenance: Aberdeen Art Gallery (purchased with the Webster Bequest and Jeffrey Fund, 1992)

Provenance: The artist’s family By descent

Reproduced with kind permission of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum

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63. ‘Seaview’, High Corrie, Arran Signed Oil 14 x 16 ins Provenance: The artist’s family By descent Fig. 4

62. High Corrie, Arran Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: The artist’s family By descent

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A steep path leads from the coastal village of Corrie up to the group of white-washed cottages at High Corrie. The cottage seen here on the right was Milne and Elsie’s home, Seaview. His studio was in the bothie to the left which he called ‘mon atelier’. The view from the studio is out to sea. A wild garden strewn with rocks surrounds the studio and a rapid burn running down from Goat Fell passes by the cottage. In the distance the peaks of Holy Isle can be seen. It was a simple but inviting home with paraffin lamps and white-washed walls. Milne’s paintings covered the walls and sheepskins covered the floor. They had an impressive vegetable garden and would send the local children down to the village shops. They were regular guests at the local pub where Milne in particular was loved for his story telling. At times, debts were settled with a painting. Robert McLellan the playwright and poet lived in one of the neighbouring cottages. With Elsie’s musical talent, and their love of poetry, High Corrie had the feeling of an artist’s colony. In the summer months they held art schools for students from Glasgow.

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64. High Corrie, Arran

65. Blossom, High Corrie, Arran

Signed and dated 47 Oil 28 x 36 ins

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Provenance: Acquired from the artist By descent

Provenance: Acquired from the artist By descent

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66. Ferry Rock, Arran

67. High Corrie, Arran

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins

Provenance: Acquired from the artist’s family By descent

Provenance: Acquired from the artist’s family By descent

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68. Corrie, Arran Signed Oil 15 x 18 ins Provenance: The artist’s family By descent

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69. Corrie, Arran Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Private collection

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72. Corrie Harbour, Arran Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Private collection

70. Cottages, Arran

71. Gourdon Harbour

Signed Watercolour and conté 11 x 15 ins

Signed Watercolour and conté 11 x 15 ins

Provenance: Matthew Justice By descent

Provenance: Matthew Justice By descent

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Fig.5

The harbour at Corrie was served by the ferry en route to Brodick in the summer months. The quay was originally built to serve the sandstone quarries at Corrie and High Corrie. In Milne’s paintings, one could easily misinterpret the harbour as a scene from the South of France. The luminosity, the turquoise waters and brightly painted boats suggest the warmth of the Côte d’Azur. The R.S.A. obituary for Milne ran ‘in the Midi, Milne found himself and the impact of this new experience stamped all his subsequent work’. In this painting, this is particularly apparent.

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73. High Corrie, Arran Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh George Street Gallery, Perth, 1990 Private collection

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74. High Corrie, Arran Signed Oil 24 X 20 ins Provenance: Acquired by a friend of the artist By descent

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75. Beached Boats, Brodick Bay, Arran Signed Oil 20 x 24 ins Provenance: Cyril Gerber, Glasgow Private collection Misys plc Portland Gallery Brodick is the main town on Arran and is reached from the mainland by ferry from Ardrossan. The beach and castle at Brodick made it a popular destination in the summer months. Rowing boats, fishing rods and bathing huts could be hired and were popular with tourists - the huts extended right along the beach (see Fig.6). The geographic variations of Arran have led to it being termed ‘Scotland in miniature’. The Scottish traditional landscape may appear forbidding at times but here, Milne bathes it in colour. Fig.6

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CHRONOLOGY

1885

1911

1929

John Maclauchlan Milne was born 12 August in Buckhaven,

Married first wife Winifred Clark on 8 July at 34 Chamber

Five French works were included in a mixed exhibition of ‘The

Fife at his maternal grandmother’s house. His father Joseph

Street, Edinburgh. Milne was registered as living at Forbes

Younger Glasgow Group’ at Lefevre Galleries in London. The

Milne (1858-1911) and uncle William Watt Milne (1865-

Road, Edinburgh and Winifred at Wilton Cottage, Seafield

exhibition explored the ‘old alliance’ between France and

1949) were artists working in the tradition of late Victorian

Road, Dundee.

Scotland.

librarian and curator of Dundee Art Gallery and Museum. He

1912

1930

had a sister, Dorothy.

Exhibited his first painting titled ‘The Pet’ at the Royal Scottish

One-man exhibition at Percy Moore Turner’s Independent

Academy (R.S.A.).

Gallery in London. One work was sold to the Palais du

genre. Milne was named after John Maclauchlan, chief

1891

Luxembourg Attended George Watson's

1914-18

Boy's College, Edinburgh.

During the First Word War Milne served with the British

Visited Italy but appears to have spent little time there. Only a

He left the school before

Expeditionary Forces in France. He may have also served with

small number of Italian subjects were exhibited (Tuscan

he was eighteen. Milne

The Royal Flying Corps (according to T. J Honeyman).

Fig. 8

Landscape, R.S.A., 1931 and S.S.A., 1931, In Tuscany, 1930

appears to have had no

and Spring-time, San Gimignano, 1930.

formal art training but was

1919

1923

taught by his father. In his

After demobilisation Milne showed two paintings ‘Belgian

The Edinburgh Paper ‘Contributions by Outsiders’ draws attention to ‘Torridon’ on show at the R.S.A.

statement for the 1938

Landscape’ and ‘Waterway Normandie’ in the Dundee Art

exhibition in St. Andrews

Society’s ‘Rededication Exhibition’. This exhibition included

he wrote ‘I cannot look

‘Mirror’ by Peploe and two paintings by Hunter.

back on a time when I was

1930s 1924

Spent increasing amounts of time in the West of Scotland

The McManus Galleries and Museum (then Dundee

during the 1930s as the economic situation worsened in Europe. During this time he often explored the Highlands with

not familiar with the smell of

c.1920

Corporation Collection) purchased A Fife Landscape with the

oil paint and the

It was about this time that Milne went to Paris. He stayed in

Morris Trust Fund (a catalogue illustrating the painting with a

paraphernalia of a studio’.

Rue des Quatre-Vents and painted famous sights such as the

brief note was published by the Corporation in 1926).

Fig. 7

According to R.S.A. 130th Annual Report Milne also visited Venice.

Luxembourg Gardens, Monmatre, Place de la Concorde and

1903

Notre-Dame. His works from this period are largely on small

c.1924

Left Scotland for Canada. He departed Glasgow Port on 20

panels and were probably painted en pleine air. Between

Following in the footsteps of Scottish contemporaries, Milne

June on board the Sicilian to Montreal with 509 passengers.

1921-1923 Milne exhibited five Paris scenes at the Royal

moved south to the Côte d’Azur. The majority of his time

He was eighteen, single and registered as an artist.

Glasgow Institute (R.G.I.).

was spent in St. Tropez and the surrounding area.

Life as an artist in Canada proved to be a challenge and Milne

Continued his paintings of traditional Scottish life at the same

Milne spent the remainder of the 1920s exploring the south

worked as a cowboy at Medicine Hat. Later in life he would

time as painting Parisian scenes as evidenced by Harvest Field,

of France, returning to Scotland to sell the works to local

entertain friends and family with stories of his days as a

1920 (Cat. 3) and Gathering Mussels, 1920.

collectors. Since the early 1920s Milne enjoyed the patronage of Alexander Keiller, a successful Dundee

cowboy and the hardship which saw him begging on the

businessman who helped sponsor Milne’s trips to France.

streets of Montreal.

1922

Only a handful of works have been traced from Milne’s time

An exhibition at his studio at 132 Nethergate in the centre of

in Canada. These are largely watercolours and traditional

Dundee received good reviews. He exhibited his first French

1926

Victorian subjects such as ‘Clam Gatherers’.

work at the R.S.A. that year.

Became a member of Society of Scottish Artists (S.S.A.).

Fig. 9

a local businessman, Fred Lawson who was another important patron. They explored the landscape in a motor caravan, converted from a First World War ambulance (Fig. 9 & 11) .

1907

c. 1923

1928

Appears to have returned home from Canada via London. A

Took a studio in the French village of Lavardin near Tours on

One Man Exhibition at Reid and Lefevre in Glasgow included a

1933

painting titled ‘The River Thames at Kew’ is dated 1907 and another,

the river Loir (a tributary of the Loire). Milne also painted the

number of French works and is well received by the critics: ‘Mr

Joint exhibition with Stewart Carmichael and Alexander Grieve

‘Strand on the Green’ stylistically dates to the same time.

neighbouring village of Langeron.

Milne is an artist who is a striver, not content to rest upon his oars’.

at Victoria Art Galleries, Dundee, organised by the Dundee Art

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Society. William Boyd presided over the opening ceremony.

1935

1944

The show included three Paris scenes, fifteen images of the

Exhibition at his studio on Nethergate in Dundee included

Sound of Sleat presented by the heirs of George L. Harvey to the McManus Galleries and Museum.

south of France, two Italian subjects, a number of Scottish

seventeen scenes of the West Coast such as ‘Sulivan’,

landscapes and still lifes as well as watercolours of the golf

‘Cuillins from Morar’, ‘Loch Gairloch’ and ’Port Appin’.

courses at Scotscraig and Rosemount. Milne is described in

French scenes include ‘St. Tropez‘ and ‘Provencal Market’.

1946 Married Elsie Makellar on 8th August at The Manse (the

the catalogue as ‘a daring experimenter’ with a ‘disregard for old conventions… [Milne] takes by storm heights that timid

1936

minister’s house) in Corrie (Fig.12), shortly after receiving his

climbers shy at. His interpretations are intensely individual,

Exhibited at Dundee Art Society.

decree of divorce from Winifred.

patronage of the progressive collectors Matthew Justice,

McManus Galleries and Museums purchased ‘Glenelg’ with

1948

William Boyd and John Tattersall for some years and all three

the Ower Bequest Fund.

colourful and exuberant’. Milne had benefited from the

collectors lent paintings by Milne to the exhibition.

McLean Gallery acquired two works as part of the Stuart Fig. 11

Anderson Caird Bequest.

1937 Elected Associate of the R.S.A.

Elected full member of R.S.A. His diploma work The Sands of Morar was deposited at the R.S.A the following year.

Exhibited three works at the 107th R.S.A. exhibition including

1943 Between 1943-1949 Milne exhibited nine paintings with Aitken Dott in Edinburgh.

1949 Sannox Bay was included in a travelling exhibition titled Scottish Painters which opened in Toledo, Ohio, in December. The exhibition was organised by the British Council and the

Loch Tulla, Argyllshire. It received positive reviews in the

1938

Scottish press. The exhibition included works by Cézanne, Van

Two paintings, ‘Still Life’ and ‘Landscape, Vence’ were

Gogh and Gauguin as well as works by Peploe, Cadell and

included in a mixed exhibition ‘Contemporary Scottish

Honeyman. Other artists in the exhibition included Mary

Fergusson, McTaggart, Gillies and Duncan Grant.

Painting’, The Gallery, St. Andrews in August. Other

Armour, F. C. B Cadell, D. Y. Cameron, J. D Fergusson, W. G.

Fig. 10

Fig. 12

selection committee included Stanley Cursiter and T. J.

artists included in the exhibition were Peploe, Fergusson,

Gillies, E. A. Hornel, G. L. Hunter, William McTaggart, William

Hunter, Cadell, MacTaggart and Gillies.

MacTaggart, McIntosh Patrick, S. J. Peploe, Anne Redpath. The

Sound of Iona was purchased by the International Business

auspices of the National Gallery at Ottawa. Milne’s painting was

Machines Corporation, New York and was exhibited at the

illustrated in the exhibition catalogue.

exhibition toured in the United States and in Canada under the

World’s Fair in New York in 1938. Milne prepared to exhibit further works in New York but the Second World

1957

War prevented this.

Became a visiting artist at Hospitalfield House, the art school near Arbroath for several months, before becoming ill.

By the end of the 1930s Milne was estranged from his wife Winifred and they had begun to live separate lives.

Died on the 28th October of carcinoma of the larynx at the home of his brother-in-law in Greenock, aged 72.

c.1940 The outbreak of the Second World War restricted public travel. This may have contributed towards Milne’s decision to settle in Arran but it may have had more to do with meeting Elsie (Elizabeth Livingston MacKellar), a strong, artistic woman in her early forties who lived on Arran. 1941 Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery acquired North Glen Sannox for their permanent collection.

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STATEMENT by John Maclauchan Milne, published in the Exhibition of Contemporary Scottish Painting, The Gallery, 7 North Street, St. Andrews, August 1938. Exhibition organized with the assistance of Reid and Lefevre. Questions posed by J. H. Whyte

1. What was the starting-point towards the decision to become an artist?

have to be looked for. The process by which content and form become one never seems twice the same.

Is this one a leg-pull, or must candidates attempt all questions?... One can no more explain one’s natural bent

pattern being imposed on one; but as a general rule, I suppose, invocation and evocation become one in the

There are occasions when one is aware of imposing a pattern, and others when one is more aware of a for painting than say why one prefers blondes or brunettes. Obviously, mine is to some extent a case of “Such

act of creation. We are most of us not very self-aware, and introspection does not tell us much, least of all

a father, such a son”; but the factors of heredity and environment are too complex for analysis. I cannot look

about this. The artist thinks of himself chiefly as a creature of moods: sometimes, quite simply, he is “in the

back on a time when I was not familiar with the smell of oil paint and the paraphernalia of a studio. The

mood,” and sometimes not. Before trying to be more precise about it, bear in mind that “On confond

Gentle Art of Making Enemies reminds us, however, that “a life passed among pictures does not make a

l’homme et l’artiste sous pretexte que le hasard les a réunis dans la même corps.”

painter… As well (as) assert that he who lives in a library must needs be a poet.” 5. What is your opinion of Scottish painting? 2. What do you consider is the function of a painting?

(a) past; (b) present;

“Art is not a thing but a way,” a way of apprehending reality. It is not a painter’s job merely to make

(c) future

something pretty, any more than to be useful – uplift people in Victorian times, make propaganda for “the Party” in our own day… If for the ancients it was enough to say “omnis ars naturae imitatio est,” that was

(a) Scottish art of the remote past - the art which reached its highest levels in the Irish Book of Kells – was very

because imitation meant always representation and not naturalism: style prevailed. When chaos came to

vital and rhythmical; but it led to a dead end, and it is difficult for us today to enter into the minds of its

modern Europe and bourgeois materialists hung their walls with horrors that merely flattered their pride of

creators. So far as I can judge, it has influenced none of my contemporaries. (It is interesting, of course, to a

property, it was inevitable that a theorist like Ruskin should seek a way out of the impasse by proclaiming that

modern Scottish artist as being the work of Celtic people: by comparison, the Germanic people, whose mode

the greatest artist is he “who has embodied in the sum of his works the greatest number of the greatest

of thought was conceptual, was not so much given to plastic art.) When we come to later centuries, when

ideas,” and that in turn an artist flinging a pot of paint in the face of the public should herald the rejection of

figure painting and landscape were introduced, there is virtually nothing to hold the modern painter’s

high principles, photographic realism (“Nature is always wrong”) and all the rest of it. Since Whistler’s time

attention for long, so that the modern Scottish artist shares what Mestrovi calls the advantages and

subjectivism has run riot, expression has been elevated above communication, and the artist has tended to

disadvantages of the artist without a rich, continuous national tradition. Calvinism, the loss of national

become a creature quite apart. It is not altogether the artist’s fault if he has not been able to sustain the

individuality (which was to drain the country of so many of its finest spirits and turn good Scots into poor

serenity of Cézanne: just as the artist has a duty as a social being, so society has a duty to acknowledge the

Englishmen), and the rise of modern capitalism wrought their havoc.

function of the artist. This function a modern aesthete has defined as the creation of “significant form,” and a Christian poet not so long ago described as the exercise of “that immortal instinct for the beautiful which

Firm and erect the Caledonian stood;

makes us consider the world and its pageants as a glimpse of, a correspondence with, Heaven.

Sound was his mutton, his claret good;

The remedying of the rottenness that prevents society recognizing this function is not the artist’s job.

“Let him drink port!” the English statesman cried: He drank the poison and his spirit died.

3. To what extent are you aware of consciously participating in or of departing from European traditions of painting?

He drank much poison of different kinds from over the Border. The Nationalists do not tell the whole truth, however. Herbert Read has just been telling French readers of the movement, partly economic and partly

I feel under no compulsion to try to “extract the tapeworm of Europe from the brain of our countrymen.” If

religious, which in England brought an end to plastic modes of expression. The movement went further in

remoter parts of the earth have preserved plastic values European art threw overboard for a time, there is no

Scotland than in England, and the English were not to blame. Though the resultant neurosis “is determined

saying that they will not throw them out under similar compulsions, and meanwhile we must paint as we can

by societal pressure, the effects reach beyond social activities and rule the individual in his purely personal

- as twentieth-century Europeans. Le goût nègre, like the goût chinois of Sheraton’s time, or the goût japonné of

modes of expression; it involves giving fixed material expression to personal impulse.” Thus, although we find

not so long ago, must be a short-lived esotericism. I am conscious of being at once a Scotsman and a

much self-assertion in the Scottish Calvinist we find relatively little self-expression.

European - when I’m not aware only of being a painter. (b) Things are improving, however: the welcome given to post-impressionism is not casual, but symptomatic. 4. Have you any particular formula for the conception and execution of your work? (c) Although the convalescence must be long, the future looks at the moment more promising than I often wish I had… Some subjects leap to the eye and give one no peace until they are worked out: others

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LIST OF EXHIBITED WORKS WORKS EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL GLASGOW INSTITUTE (R.G.I.)

WORKS EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL SCOTTISH ACADEMY (R.S.A.)

Date

Title of Painting

Date

Title of Painting

Date

Title of Painting

Date

Title of Painting

1912

On the Hillside (watercolour)

1946

North Shore, Iona

1912

The Pet

1939

Treshnish Isles

1915

A Fifeshire Landscape

Sannox Bay

1913

A Tayside Village

Paysage, Vence

1918

Harvest Time

Apple Blossom

1915

A Fifeshire Moor

Apple Blossom

Hayrick 1919

A Belgian Landscape

1920

Landscape (Watercolour)

1921

Pont Marie, Paris

1947

The Cherry Tree 1948

Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris

High Corrie, Arran

Rue Royale, Paris

Port of St Tropez

Rue St Honore, Paris

Flowerpiece

1925

Saint Tropez Bar

1927

Village in Provence

1950

Flowers

1934

Larig Ghru

1939

1942

1944

Sgurr Ruadh

Provençal Village

1924

Paysage - Lavardin

Port of St Tropez

1925

Ramatuelle

Spring – High Corrie

Paysage de Provence

Autumn, Arran 1943

Sannox Bay Cioch na h-Oighe

1944

Cornfield – Sannox

St Tropez, Var

An Arran croft South Sannox Barn

Wine Boats – St Tropez

1928

Le Port

Western Isles

1929

Paysage de Provence

Flowers

1930

1952

Provençal Market Cineraria

1945

Sannox Kirk Croft, North Sannox

Le Regime de Legumes

Cnoc-na-Burnedh

Fleurs

The Bennin, Corrie

1953

Flowerpiece The Old Harbour- Corrie

1931

Tuscan Landscape

1954

Cioch na h-Oighe

1932

Carros

Landscape in Provence

Sannox Bay

1933

Flowers

Winter – Arran

Sound of Iona

Prunus

Loch Tulla

Sannox Bay

Summer Seas, Iona

1955

Dun I, Iona Glen Sannox

Magnolias Sunflowers

1956

Glenelg

Corrie, Arran

The Cherry Tree - Corrie 1947

Scowl on Cloche

An Arran Port

Loch Alsh

Spring - High Corrie

The Terrace – St Paul

Hills of Kintail

Magnolia

Garbh Choire, Arran

High Corrie, Arran

High Corrie, Arran

Cherry Tree - Corrie 1958

Cromla Corrie 1946

Loch Erribol, Sutherland 1934

1935

Cuillins from Loch Hourn

1948

The Croft

Wine Boats – St Tropez

Glen Rosa Camelias

Cineraria

The Cherry Tree

Cioch na h-Oighe

North Glen Sannox

Sannox Bay

Sunflowers

Seascape, Stoer

Landscape, Provence

The Road to Sannox

Cherry Tree - Corrie

Suilven

St Tropez

1936

1937

Sannox Burn Cornfield, Sannox

Achmelvich

1938

1949

Torrian, Skye Landscape, Provence

Springtime in Arran

98

High Corrie, Arran South Glen Sannox

Paysage, Frejus, Var

The Witches’ Step

1945

1942

Torridon - Ross-shire

1926

South Glen, Sannox 1943

High Corrie

1927

North Glen Sannox 1941

Garbh Choine, Arran

Village de Lavardin

Roses

Cir Mhor 1940

Springtime – Arran

Glen Sannox

An Old Farm, Boarhills Paysage, Villavard 1923

Dun I, Iona 1941

Legumes

North Shore, Iona 1938

North Glen Sannox

Still Life - Tulips

Flowerpiece 1937

1922

Fifeshire Cornfields

Cir Mhor

Flowers Eigg from Morar 1936

1951

1940

A Backwater on the Tay Corn Stooks

1920

Dahlias 1949

1923

1933

Pittenweem 1919

L’Estaque Port of St Tropez

Pantheon, Paris 1922

Brodick Bay

St Paul

High Corrie, Arran 1950

Magnolia

Sands of Morar (diploma work)

High Corrie, Arran

Sound of Iona

St Tropez

Harbour, Corrie

Flower Piece

Reflections – Corrie

Villa Belle Isnard

Port St Tropez 1951

Port of St Tropez

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COLLECTIONS WORKS EXHIBITED AT THE R.S.A.

continued

WORKS EXHIBITED AT THE SOCIETY OF SCOTTISH ARTISTS (S.S.A.)

Date

Title of Painting

Date

Title of Painting

1951

La Place, St Tropez

1925

St Tropez, Var Paysage, Var

Provincial Village 1952

1953

An Arran Croft

1958

Harvest Field, Arran

City Art Gallery, Edinburgh

Achmelvich

Dundee Art Society

East Neuk Harbour

Hunterian Art Gallery

Fisherman’s Quay, St. Tropez, 1931

St Tropez, Var (watercolour)

Glen Sannox

Springtime, Arran

Paysage (watercolour)

Roses

Paysage du Midi

North Shore, Iona

La Maison Blanche

Manchester Art Gallery

Artichoke Flowers

St Tropez (watercolour)

McLean Museum & Art Gallery

High Corrie

Flower-piece 1954

1926

Aberdeen Art Gallery

1927

Wine Boats, St Tropez

Le Village

Flower-piece

Nature Morte

June Day in Iona

Fleurs

Sands of Morar (Diploma work)

1928

Garden in Provence (property of W. Watson)

Kelvingrove Art Gallery

Loch Eriboll

St Tropez Collection of the City of Dundee /

Larig Ghru, 1931

McManus Galleries and Museum

Fife Landscape, 1920 Loch Tulla

Street of the Four Winds, St Tropez

Cir Mhor 1930

Saint Tropez

L’Estaque

Harbour Scene

Fleurs

Glenelg

Paysage St Paul 1931

The Sound of Sleat, 1934

Old Olive Trees, St Paul (Property of W. Boyd)

Seascape

Artichokes in Flower (Property of W. Boyd)

Continental Town Scene

Tuscan Landscape 1932

Larkspur

National Galleries of Scotland

1934

Landscape, Sutherland

National Trust for Scotland

Cassis

Old Port, St Tropez

Paisley Art Gallery

Provence

Durness

Perth Museum and Art Gallery

S.O.S Post, Chateau Segard near Ypres

Window in St Tropez

Concert, Jardin de Tuileries

Balgie Bridge, Glen Lyon

Glen Rosa, Arran Sannox Bay

A Western Shore

Pink Roses

Scavaig 1935 1936 1937

1938

100

Landscape Sutherland c.1930-35 Champs aux Chèvres (on loan)

Lairig Ghru

1933

North Glen Sannox

White Sands, Morar

June Day, Iona

A Tuscan Farm

Seascape, Iona

Tulips

High Corrie, Arran

Landscape – Vence

Cir Mhor, Arran

Portree Harbour

The Earn Valley from Celer Fountain Hill

Summer Seas, Iona (watercolour)

Royal Scottish Academy

Sands of Morar, 1937

St Tropez (watercolour)

Clydesdale Bank

Summer Sunshine, Cassis

Flowerpiece (watercolour)

Sannox Bay, Arran

North Shore, Iona

Springwell, Corrie

Calva Shore, Iona

Corrie, Arran

101

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

M. A. Forrest, French Impressions: Scottish Artists in France 1880 to 1950, exh. cat., Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh/London, 1985 F. Fowle, Impressionism & Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2008 F. Fowle, ‘Pioneers of Taste: Collecting in Dundee in the 1920s’, Journal of the Scottish Society of Art History, vol. 11, 2006, pp 56-65 S. Gauldie, ‘A Magician with Paint’, The Scots Magazine, New Series, Vol. 124, No.6, Dundee, 1986, pp 564-571 S. Gauldie, John Maclauchlan Milne R.S.A. 1885 – 1957: A Centenary Exhibition, exh. cat., Dundee Art Galleries and Museums, Dundee, 1985 K. Hall, The Isle of Arran, Stenlake Publishing, 2001 W. Hardie, Scottish Painting, 1837 to the Present, Studio Vista, London, 1990, pp 143-144 T. Hewlett, Cadell: The Life and Works of a Scottish Colourist 1883 – 1937, London/Edinburgh, 1988 T. J. Honeyman, Introducing Leslie Hunter, London, 1937, p. 119 T. J. Honeyman, ‘Maclauchlan Milne’, Scottish Field, May 1955, pp 69-71 P. Long, 'A Collection Revealed: Douglas Hutchison's gift of 20th-Century Scottish Art to the National Trust for Scotland', Scotland in Trust, 2001 D. MacMillan, Scottish Art, 1460-1990, Edinburgh, 1990, p.326 P. J. M. McEwan, The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture, Glengarden, 2004 D. Ogston, The Life and Work of George Leslie Hunter 1877 – 1931, Kelso, 2002 G. Peploe, S. J. Peploe: 1871 – 1935, Edinburgh, 2000 K. Simister, Living Paint: J. D. Fergusson 1874 – 1961, Edinburgh, 2001 F. Spalding, Duncan Grant: A Biography, London, 1997 A. Strang, Consider the Lilies; Scottish Painting 1910-1980, Dundee City Council in Fig.13

association with National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2006 Royal Scottish Academy, 130th Annual Report, Edinburgh, 1957, pp. 9, 282-283 Exhibition of Contemporary Scottish Painting, exh. cat., The Gallery, St Andrews, 1938 REFERENCES 1 Gauldie, A Magician with Paint, page 567 2 R.S.A., 130th Annual Report, page 9 3 Observer (local paper), 24 Feb 1929. 4 A Dundee newsaper, February, 1923 5 Glasgow Herald, Milne Obituary, 29th October 1957 6 T. Honeyman, Introducing Leslie Hunter, p. 119 7 T. Honeyman, Scottish Field, May 1955, p. 70 Fig. 1,2,8,10,12,13 Milne family archive Fig. 3,5,6 © K.Hall / Stenlake Publishing Fig. 4 © Visit Scotland Ltd Fig. 7 Print of Portrait of Milne, 1911, by Stewart Carmichael Fig. 9,11 Friends of Milne family

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We would like to express our sincere thanks to all those who have helped to make possible this exhibition and catalogue; to Philip Long of The National Galleries of Scotland for his excellent introductory essay; to the descendants of John Maclauchlan Milne for their assistance in gathering all the family information; and especially to the collectors and owners of Milne paintings who have been unfailing generous with their time when we have visited them and many of whom have allowed us to borrow their paintings. Portland Gallery exclusively represents the estate of John Maclauchlan Milne. Images of all paintings are © The Maclauchlan Milne Estate courtesy Portland Gallery, London. ISBN 978-0-9565720-0-4

Back cover

Corrie, Arran

Pen and ink

5 x 4 ins

Catalogue no.76

Provenance: Sent by the artist as a Christmas card