The Peebles Train
About this artwork
Gillies painted the Scottish landscape in all seasons, travelling around the countryside on his motorcycle. From 1939 he lived in the village of Temple in Midlothian, south of Edinburgh. This painting shows the train to the nearby town of Peebles emerging from behind the hills. Gillies has depicted the train as only a small part of the wider scene, and it almost blends into the background suggesting that the landscape at large is of greater interest to the artist. Gillies explained: ‘I have always enjoyed weather, always seen landscape pictorially, and I’ve got immense satisfaction in recording swiftly in line and colour the fugitive, the subtle and the grand in nature.’
Updated before 2020
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artist:Sir William Gillies (1898 - 1973) Scottish
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title:The Peebles Train
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date created:About 1950
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materials:Oil on canvas
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measurements:46.00 x 56.50 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Bequeathed by Dr R.A. Lillie 1977
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accession number:GMA 1811
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gallery:
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subject:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Sir William Gillies
Sir William Gillies
Born in Haddington near Edinburgh, Gillies studied at Edinburgh College of Art. After graduating, he taught there for more than forty years until his retirement as Principal in 1966, having influenced several generations of artists. A college grant enabled Gillies to go to Paris in 1923 to study,...