National Galleries of Scotland

Among the exhibition highlights will be several of our world-class holdings, such as Gauguin’s Vision of the Sermon and Degas’s Portrait of Diego Martelli, as well as pre-Impressionist masterpieces such as Pissarro’s The Marne at Chennevières. The fact that works of such renown and quality are held in Scotland is down to two chance factors—a series of progressive purchases by previous National Galleries of Scotland Directors in the first half of the twentieth century, and the generosity of benefactors such as Sir Alexander and Rosalind Maitland—both reflecting the enlightened state of Scottish taste in the inter-war period and beyond.

As the market for Impressionism began to thrive, a sinister side industry in ‘fakes’ took hold, culminating in two major scandals in the early 1930s around the forging of works by Millet and Van Gogh. In keeping with the true spirit of the age, A Taste for Impressionism will include some counterfeit works which will remain unidentified to test visitors’ powers of discernment.

A Taste for Impressionism will span the entire exhibition space of the Royal Scottish Academy building, charting how Impressionism emerged from the indulgence of the Romantic period to become a radical movement, through to the price-shattering auction phenomenon it is today.