National Galleries of Scotland

The exhibition shared fascinating stories about how visionary Scottish collectors invested in, what were then, innovative and radical artworks and reveals how they found their way into Scotland’s national collection.

Among the exhibition highlights were 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 included some counterfeit works which will remain unidentified to test visitors’ powers of detection.

A Taste for Impressionism spanned 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.