Poppies against the Night Sky
About this artwork
William MacTaggart enjoyed a long career as an artist, exhibiting regularly from 1920. In the 1950s he began painting a series of still lifes framed by windows. These have been compared to the work of the French painter Edouard Vuillard in their evocation of a privileged, enclosed space. In this painting from around 1962 a vase of poppies is framed by a window, through which can be seen a row of houses in Edinburgh’s New Town, opposite MacTaggart’s studio. The painting is not only a still life but a study in mood and tone, the rich, deep blues of the night sky balancing the colourful and exuberantly painted flowers.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Sir William MacTaggart (1903 - 1981) Scottish
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title:Poppies against the Night Sky
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date created:About 1962
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materials:Oil on hardboard
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measurements:76.20 x 63.50 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Scott Hay Collection: presented 1967
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accession number:GMA 1046
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gallery:
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subject:
Sir William MacTaggart
Sir William MacTaggart
Born in Loanhead, Midlothian, MacTaggart was the grandson of the artist William McTaggart, the leading Scottish landscape painter of his period. MacTaggart studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1918 to 1921, returning there in 1933 to teach until 1958. He painted landscapes and still lifes and...