A Portrait of Scotland

0:00:20 > 0:00:23If you can draw, you can draw.

0:00:23 > 0:00:25Or so you think.

0:00:26 > 0:00:28But if you don't keep at it,

0:00:28 > 0:00:34you'll find, as I did, that it slips away.

0:00:35 > 0:00:40So one day, you wake up, and you start doing it again,

0:00:40 > 0:00:43whenever and wherever you can.

0:00:51 > 0:00:53And more often than not,

0:00:53 > 0:00:56it will be the human face that you're drawn to.

0:01:11 > 0:01:13This is where my talent brought me,

0:01:13 > 0:01:16Glasgow School of Art.

0:01:20 > 0:01:22I first came here as a student in 1976.

0:01:22 > 0:01:27I was a noisy but secretly nervous youth.

0:01:27 > 0:01:29And when I walked through these doors,

0:01:29 > 0:01:33I joined a sea of denim, long hair and afghan coats.

0:01:38 > 0:01:41What gift I had was for drawing faces,

0:01:41 > 0:01:44so I'd certainly come to the right place

0:01:44 > 0:01:47if I wanted to learn about that most particular of Scottish arts,

0:01:47 > 0:01:48the portrait.

0:01:48 > 0:01:51But then you see, punk rock happened

0:01:51 > 0:01:56and a whole bunch of us abandoned our army surplus greatcoats

0:01:56 > 0:02:01in favour of peroxide hair, PVC trousers and guitars.

0:02:01 > 0:02:03I turned my back on the place,

0:02:03 > 0:02:08but now, with this programme, I've been offered a second chance,

0:02:08 > 0:02:13a chance to learn anew about the great traditions and history of Scottish painting.

0:02:13 > 0:02:16And this time, I'm going to take it.

0:02:48 > 0:02:50Here at the Glasgow School of Art,

0:02:50 > 0:02:53the final year degree show is coming down

0:02:53 > 0:02:59and a new group of artists is setting out to take their part in the story of Scottish art.

0:02:59 > 0:03:05It is a story that has been dominated by the portrait.

0:03:05 > 0:03:10I'm going to be looking back over 500 years to consider why.

0:03:13 > 0:03:15I'll be looking at the artists

0:03:15 > 0:03:20who have been capturing Scotland and its people on canvas.

0:03:23 > 0:03:26From 17th century portrait painters

0:03:26 > 0:03:29to 19th century neo-classicists,

0:03:29 > 0:03:32to Glasgow boys, old and new.

0:03:32 > 0:03:38Scotland's artists have created an enduring and unique portrait of Scotland.

0:03:56 > 0:03:59This story of Scotland's art begins here -

0:03:59 > 0:04:01an unassuming church in Perth

0:04:01 > 0:04:05that witnessed the advent of a revolution.

0:04:06 > 0:04:10What happened here would change Scottish art forever.

0:04:12 > 0:04:16It was on this spot on 11th May 1559,

0:04:16 > 0:04:21that John Knox preached an impassioned sermon that outlawed

0:04:21 > 0:04:27what was until then, the mainstay of Scottish art, religious icons.

0:04:27 > 0:04:31On that day, Knox unequivocally brought to Scotland

0:04:31 > 0:04:36a brand of Protestantism that would change everything.

0:04:36 > 0:04:43"Though shalt not make unto thee any graven image

0:04:43 > 0:04:45"or any likeness of anything

0:04:45 > 0:04:48"that is in heaven above,

0:04:48 > 0:04:50"or that is in the earth below,

0:04:50 > 0:04:54"or that is in the water under the earth."

0:04:55 > 0:04:57It was year zero.

0:04:58 > 0:05:02The crowd grew so frenzied, they smashed the stained glass

0:05:02 > 0:05:08and ripped down the paintings and statues.

0:05:08 > 0:05:12The Reformation of the Catholic Church was gathering pace.

0:05:12 > 0:05:17Across Europe, it would devastate swathes of cultural heritage.

0:05:17 > 0:05:19In a way, the death of religious art

0:05:19 > 0:05:21was the making of the portrait.

0:05:21 > 0:05:24Holy pictures were now forbidden, so with no market,

0:05:24 > 0:05:29and a living to earn, artists had to take a different tack.

0:05:30 > 0:05:33Protestants believed in the importance of the individual.

0:05:33 > 0:05:35And through reading the Bible,

0:05:35 > 0:05:38having a direct relationship with God.

0:05:38 > 0:05:41You were responsible for your actions,

0:05:41 > 0:05:43not the Catholic hierarchy in Rome.

0:05:43 > 0:05:46The perfect art form to illustrate the new way of thinking

0:05:46 > 0:05:48was portraiture.

0:06:03 > 0:06:06Scotland's artists embraced the desire for painted portraits.

0:06:06 > 0:06:09So much so that by the 18th century,

0:06:09 > 0:06:13a Scottish painter would be acknowledged to be among the very best in Britain.

0:06:15 > 0:06:19When Allan Ramsay was appointed the King's painter in 1761,

0:06:19 > 0:06:23he set the pattern for Scottish artists capturing on canvas

0:06:23 > 0:06:27the figures and the times that forged Scotland's history.

0:06:35 > 0:06:41And the best are all in here, in this suitably imposing building.

0:06:41 > 0:06:43One of Edinburgh's dearest treasures.

0:06:43 > 0:06:47Built as a shrine to Scotland's heroes hence the statues,

0:06:47 > 0:06:50it is in fact the Scottish National Portrait Gallery,

0:06:50 > 0:06:55the very first purpose built portrait gallery in the world.

0:07:13 > 0:07:19In this building, you can see how portraiture has reflected the changing face of Scotland.

0:07:24 > 0:07:26The man in charge is James Holloway.

0:07:27 > 0:07:31Do you think Scots have a particular interest in portraiture?

0:07:31 > 0:07:36- Is it something that is significant to them? - That's a very good question.

0:07:36 > 0:07:38When you look at the 18th century and the 19th century,

0:07:38 > 0:07:41the greatest artists have been portrait painters.

0:07:41 > 0:07:43Certainly in the early periods.

0:07:43 > 0:07:46There is a way of looking at people,

0:07:46 > 0:07:50looking at their characters and there is a sort of Scottish vision.

0:07:50 > 0:07:55Do you think there's such a thing as a Scottish face?

0:07:55 > 0:07:57Would that be racist to say that?

0:07:57 > 0:08:01It probably may well be racist but let's pretend it isn't.

0:08:01 > 0:08:06There are faces that you instinctively think of as Scottish.

0:08:06 > 0:08:12We bought a marvellous portrait of somebody who was a local defence volunteer in the Second World War.

0:08:12 > 0:08:14He was painted as a part of propaganda.

0:08:14 > 0:08:17He had a face that could have stepped out of Dad's Army

0:08:17 > 0:08:19but he was recognisably Scottish.

0:08:19 > 0:08:21You couldn't say that was a Welsh face or an Irish face.

0:08:21 > 0:08:24It was a Scottish face.

0:08:24 > 0:08:29I'm interested to know, you have numerous pictures of royalty.

0:08:29 > 0:08:32Yes we do. We have a fantastic portrait of Mary Queen of Scots.

0:08:32 > 0:08:37- A great full-length portrait, one of the most famous portraits of her in the world.- Can we have a look?

0:08:37 > 0:08:40- Of course we can.- This way?- Yep.

0:08:40 > 0:08:43- Down here and up the staircase. - You know your way about.

0:08:43 > 0:08:44I should do!

0:08:51 > 0:08:54What was the purpose of a picture like this?

0:08:54 > 0:08:56This was done after her death.

0:08:56 > 0:08:59It was. It was painted for her son, James VI

0:08:59 > 0:09:02who by that stage had become James I of England.

0:09:02 > 0:09:09This painting is a reflection of her, what she looked like and also a comment on her martyrdom.

0:09:09 > 0:09:15That red colour, the tablecloth, is the red blood of her martyrdom.

0:09:15 > 0:09:20Clearly, it was very important who you married when you were a member of the Royal Family.

0:09:20 > 0:09:23- Very much and actually, they used portraits for that.- In what way?

0:09:23 > 0:09:26Portraits were sent out from the Royal Courts

0:09:26 > 0:09:29to, say, to a king of prospective brides

0:09:29 > 0:09:32they were sent across Europe.

0:09:32 > 0:09:38Then they were also sent to embassies to raise the status right across the world.

0:09:38 > 0:09:42You had to be careful, otherwise you could get yourself into a Thai bride situation.

0:09:42 > 0:09:44This happened with Henry VIII.

0:09:44 > 0:09:47There was a very flattering portrait of Anne of Cleves.

0:09:47 > 0:09:51- And when she turned up... - He called her the Flanders Mare.

0:09:51 > 0:09:54She didn't live up to Holbein's image at all.

0:09:54 > 0:09:57So Mary Queen of Scots, she had suitors as well?

0:09:57 > 0:10:00She had lots of suitors, she had three husbands, too.

0:10:00 > 0:10:03She was very pretty, very glamorous, a very tall woman,

0:10:03 > 0:10:07I think that irritated Elizabeth particularly.

0:10:16 > 0:10:20Sketching a painting is an odd thing to do,

0:10:20 > 0:10:22but it makes me look at it more carefully.

0:10:24 > 0:10:29And it lets me spend a little more time with it.

0:10:29 > 0:10:31There's a lovely story that I read.

0:10:32 > 0:10:38It was that... Mary Queen of Scots' son,

0:10:38 > 0:10:40James VI...

0:10:40 > 0:10:44Of course his mother was beheaded...

0:10:45 > 0:10:50..and was not buried in Westminster with all the splendour of a queen.

0:10:50 > 0:10:53And when he became the King,

0:10:53 > 0:10:56he had her body brought...

0:10:57 > 0:11:00..to London, and there she was buried

0:11:00 > 0:11:05with all the appropriate...respect.

0:11:05 > 0:11:08But there's a lovely image,

0:11:08 > 0:11:10and he had to do this on the quiet,

0:11:10 > 0:11:14because politically, it wasn't very popular.

0:11:14 > 0:11:18And so they brought her body on a carriage

0:11:18 > 0:11:21in the middle of the night and rode through London

0:11:21 > 0:11:24and apparently, as it did,

0:11:24 > 0:11:29the streets were lined with supporters of the old Queen

0:11:29 > 0:11:32standing there raising lanterns.

0:11:34 > 0:11:36So he was a good son after all.

0:11:53 > 0:11:57Scotland's first really successful native painter

0:11:57 > 0:12:01was Aberdeen-born artist George Jamesone.

0:12:01 > 0:12:04His studio still exists on Edinburgh's Royal Mile,

0:12:04 > 0:12:07where he worked in the 1630s.

0:12:07 > 0:12:09They were temporary premises...

0:12:09 > 0:12:12'Jamesone expert Dr Duncan Thomson met me there.

0:12:12 > 0:12:16'It's the city's oldest inhabited building

0:12:16 > 0:12:19'and we've been allowed access by the owners.'

0:12:19 > 0:12:22Ah, this is incredible.

0:12:22 > 0:12:26This represents wealth, in a sense, because one would expect

0:12:26 > 0:12:30your normal Scottish ceiling of this date

0:12:30 > 0:12:35to be open beams painted, which was the cheap way of decorating a room.

0:12:35 > 0:12:38This represents a growing prosperity.

0:12:38 > 0:12:41So it's very likely that this was Jamesone's ceiling?

0:12:41 > 0:12:45I should think it probably was here when he occupied this building.

0:12:45 > 0:12:48- So here he is. - The founder of Scottish Art.

0:12:48 > 0:12:50The Founder of Scottish Art?

0:12:50 > 0:12:53Well, he's the first major native painter.

0:12:53 > 0:12:56There had been foreign painters working in Edinburgh

0:12:56 > 0:13:03but he's the first major painter who was actually a Scot.

0:13:03 > 0:13:06His background was in the decorative painting tradition,

0:13:06 > 0:13:08the people who painted ceilings.

0:13:08 > 0:13:12But quite quickly, he becomes a major portrait painter.

0:13:12 > 0:13:15And this is his self-portrait?

0:13:15 > 0:13:19It is very pretentious in a good sense.

0:13:19 > 0:13:23He is advertising himself and advertising what he's capable of.

0:13:23 > 0:13:26- This appears to be a portrait of Charles I here.- Uh-huh.

0:13:26 > 0:13:29There's no existing portrait of Charles I by Jamesone.

0:13:29 > 0:13:33But it looks as if he did paint one. That's more than likely.

0:13:33 > 0:13:36A skull on a shield

0:13:36 > 0:13:40which is a common memento mori, a reminder of death,

0:13:40 > 0:13:41that life was short.

0:13:41 > 0:13:44A very common feature in 17th century art.

0:13:44 > 0:13:50I think he is saying... He is a very important figure in Scottish life

0:13:50 > 0:13:54and he had a surprising amount of fame during his own lifetime.

0:13:54 > 0:13:59There are a number of poems written about Jamesone and what a great painter he was.

0:13:59 > 0:14:04Presumably, it was a way to... If someone was famous,

0:14:04 > 0:14:08it was the only way to show people how they looked?

0:14:08 > 0:14:10That's right.

0:14:10 > 0:14:14It is much the same reason as we still have our portraits painted.

0:14:14 > 0:14:16There's obviously an element of vanity,

0:14:16 > 0:14:20you want to protect yourself from ravages of time, as it were,

0:14:20 > 0:14:23you want people to know what you looked like once you've gone -

0:14:23 > 0:14:26just as we have portraits painted today.

0:14:38 > 0:14:39This promise of immortality

0:14:39 > 0:14:43led to a growth in the popularity of portraiture.

0:14:46 > 0:14:48By the middle of the 18th century,

0:14:48 > 0:14:50it had become the perfect visual form

0:14:50 > 0:14:54for exploring the new philosophical ideas of the day,

0:14:54 > 0:14:57ideas that were being forged in Scotland's capital.

0:14:59 > 0:15:01It was the age of the Enlightenment,

0:15:01 > 0:15:05a time when Edinburgh pulsed with intellectual energy.

0:15:05 > 0:15:10Almost every aspect of mankind's existence, philosophy, history,

0:15:10 > 0:15:12medicine, economics,

0:15:12 > 0:15:15was being forensically examined and questioned.

0:15:18 > 0:15:22At the time, Scotsmen like philosopher David Hume,

0:15:22 > 0:15:26economist Adam Smith and medic Joseph Black

0:15:26 > 0:15:29successfully challenged beliefs about the physical world.

0:15:29 > 0:15:31Thanks to John Knox and the Reformation,

0:15:31 > 0:15:35Scotland was one of the most literate nations in the world.

0:15:35 > 0:15:36During the Enlightenment,

0:15:36 > 0:15:40it moved to the very centre of European intellectual thought.

0:15:40 > 0:15:43Edinburgh was described as the Athens of the North,

0:15:43 > 0:15:48and Voltaire declared that, "It is to Scotland that we look for our civilisation."

0:15:50 > 0:15:53And this radical shift in Scottish intellectual life

0:15:53 > 0:15:56soon found its way into Scotland's art.

0:15:59 > 0:16:02Allan Ramsay was born in Edinburgh in 1713.

0:16:02 > 0:16:04During his lifetime,

0:16:04 > 0:16:07his sophisticated, painterly style

0:16:07 > 0:16:10would put Scottish art on the European stage.

0:16:10 > 0:16:12He built his reputation

0:16:12 > 0:16:14as an intellectual painter

0:16:14 > 0:16:16in both Edinburgh and London,

0:16:16 > 0:16:20and went on to be hailed as one of the finest portrait painters of his time.

0:16:22 > 0:16:23It was Ramsay's belief

0:16:23 > 0:16:28that art should be easily understood by anyone.

0:16:28 > 0:16:31His paintings should reflect exactly what he saw.

0:16:33 > 0:16:38These beliefs brought him close to a man called David Hume,

0:16:38 > 0:16:40one of the leading thinkers of the Enlightenment.

0:16:40 > 0:16:42Both men lived in Edinburgh,

0:16:42 > 0:16:45they were both founder members of The Select Society,

0:16:45 > 0:16:49a distinguished debating club here in the city, and they became firm friends.

0:16:49 > 0:16:54It was only natural that Hume's ideas should begin to find expression in Ramsay's art.

0:16:57 > 0:17:00Hume believed that the key to understanding the world

0:17:00 > 0:17:03was directly through experience and the senses.

0:17:03 > 0:17:05And you can see that

0:17:05 > 0:17:08in Ramsay's direct and honest portrait of the philosopher.

0:17:14 > 0:17:17Here in the Portrait Gallery, I'm going to find out more about

0:17:17 > 0:17:23Allan Ramsay from deputy curator Nicola Kalinsky. So who is this?

0:17:23 > 0:17:29This is the first Mrs Ramsay, Anne Bayne, about 1739 to 40,

0:17:29 > 0:17:33so an early portrait by Allan Ramsay.

0:17:33 > 0:17:36So how old would he have been when he painted this?

0:17:36 > 0:17:38He's a young man in his early 20s.

0:17:38 > 0:17:43He's already made first trip to Italy, where he trained,

0:17:43 > 0:17:45and he came back to Britain

0:17:45 > 0:17:49and he married Anne Bayne on his return in 1738.

0:17:49 > 0:17:51But already a very accomplished painter?

0:17:51 > 0:17:57- Yes.- The pose is quite strange, it seems quite uptight, stiff?

0:17:57 > 0:17:58She's a young girl.

0:17:58 > 0:18:01She's probably never been painted before,

0:18:01 > 0:18:06and she's subject to the intense scrutiny of the artist.

0:18:06 > 0:18:09It's probably quite a nerve-wracking thing to do.

0:18:09 > 0:18:14If you compare this to commissioned portraits of the period, um,

0:18:14 > 0:18:18those portraits that he's paid to do of women,

0:18:18 > 0:18:21this is much more intimate and direct.

0:18:21 > 0:18:26There is something almost uncomfortable, I think, about the directness of it.

0:18:26 > 0:18:28She feels quite exposed.

0:18:28 > 0:18:30Yes, her gaze,

0:18:30 > 0:18:32when you look at her,

0:18:32 > 0:18:34she's saying something...

0:18:36 > 0:18:38It's really between... she and her husband, isn't it?

0:18:38 > 0:18:42We're probably not supposed to be part of this exchange, perhaps.

0:18:42 > 0:18:44She's not really looking at me,

0:18:44 > 0:18:47- she's looking at him.- Yep. Mm.

0:18:49 > 0:18:51I love the colour, as well.

0:18:51 > 0:18:55At this period, Ramsay is using quite an intense red underpainting

0:18:55 > 0:18:58which he would have learnt in the Italian studios,

0:18:58 > 0:19:00and that probably gives the face this warmth,

0:19:00 > 0:19:05and if you look around the eyes, very warm highlights.

0:19:05 > 0:19:07So the red will have gone down first?

0:19:07 > 0:19:09- Yes.- As opposed to later.- Indeed.

0:19:09 > 0:19:13- And then built up with these other layers of paint?- Mm-hm.

0:19:13 > 0:19:15It's a palpable, living, breathing human being.

0:19:15 > 0:19:19That's what's amazing about him, I mean, he does...

0:19:19 > 0:19:22She's there, she's in that picture.

0:19:22 > 0:19:23Yeah, yeah.

0:19:26 > 0:19:32She died in 1743, in childbirth, so in fact it was a very short marriage,

0:19:32 > 0:19:35just five years, very sad.

0:19:35 > 0:19:39So we only know her as a young woman, a young bride.

0:19:39 > 0:19:40Right.

0:19:40 > 0:19:43Well, that gives an added poignancy to this.

0:19:43 > 0:19:44It does indeed, yes.

0:19:48 > 0:19:5111 years later, Allan Ramsay married again.

0:19:52 > 0:19:54And, of course,

0:19:54 > 0:19:57he painted a beautiful portrait of the second Mrs Ramsay.

0:20:01 > 0:20:04There's such incredibly...

0:20:04 > 0:20:05sensitive and...

0:20:05 > 0:20:08delicate painting in this picture,

0:20:08 > 0:20:11particularly if you look at the lips.

0:20:12 > 0:20:16And I think... what makes this picture...

0:20:18 > 0:20:25..one of Ramsay's most celebrated and most famous pictures...

0:20:28 > 0:20:31..is not just his handling of light,...

0:20:32 > 0:20:34..not just the subtlety

0:20:34 > 0:20:38with which he renders...the lace,

0:20:38 > 0:20:41the garments, and the clothing,...

0:20:42 > 0:20:44..not just the pose, which is...

0:20:46 > 0:20:50..Margaret here, I think, has just been arranging flowers

0:20:50 > 0:20:53in the vase in their home...

0:20:55 > 0:20:56..and appears just to have been...

0:20:56 > 0:20:59caught in the moment of doing that.

0:21:01 > 0:21:03I think...

0:21:03 > 0:21:06it's because you can see...

0:21:06 > 0:21:07how much he loves her.

0:21:23 > 0:21:25Allan Ramsay was painting at a time

0:21:25 > 0:21:29when Scotland's art market had seen considerable change.

0:21:29 > 0:21:34The Act of Union in 1707 meant Parliament now followed the Court south,

0:21:34 > 0:21:38taking with it long-established patrons of the arts.

0:21:40 > 0:21:45Scottish painters had lost the patronage of the Church and of the Royal Court.

0:21:45 > 0:21:50Times might have been hard if a new group of benefactors hadn't emerged

0:21:50 > 0:21:53in the shape of Scotland's landed gentry and the new middle class.

0:21:58 > 0:22:01It was gentry like the Earls of Bute

0:22:01 > 0:22:03who built their country pile, Mount Stuart,

0:22:03 > 0:22:05in the late 19th century.

0:22:05 > 0:22:07The Butes used the same architect

0:22:07 > 0:22:10that designed the Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.

0:22:15 > 0:22:20This sumptuous building houses the fruits of centuries of patronage of the arts.

0:22:37 > 0:22:40Allan Ramsay's success as a portrait painter

0:22:40 > 0:22:44wasn't just down to his skill alone, it was his personality as well.

0:22:44 > 0:22:48His tact and integrity earned him friends in high places.

0:22:48 > 0:22:51And he became a particular favourite of John Stuart,

0:22:51 > 0:22:53the 3rd Earl of Bute.

0:22:57 > 0:23:02Here at Mount Stuart, they have one of the best collections of Ramsays in the world.

0:23:04 > 0:23:06'I've had a special invitation to view them

0:23:06 > 0:23:09'from the 7th Marquess of Bute himself.'

0:23:09 > 0:23:12This is the dining room, Peter, and as you can see,

0:23:12 > 0:23:16this is where we have the core of the family portrait collection.

0:23:16 > 0:23:18These amazing Ramsays...

0:23:18 > 0:23:21Yeah, they're very, very wonderful.

0:23:21 > 0:23:28I grew up in this house, I was born on the island and grew up here,

0:23:28 > 0:23:31so in a way it's slightly bizarre

0:23:31 > 0:23:36in the 20th, 21st century to be brought up in these surroundings.

0:23:36 > 0:23:39So this is

0:23:39 > 0:23:41the King as Prince Regent...

0:23:41 > 0:23:43That's the King.

0:23:45 > 0:23:47That's the 3rd Earl there...

0:23:47 > 0:23:54The 3rd Earl was the first Scotsman to hold the post of

0:23:54 > 0:23:56First Lord of the Treasury, i.e. Prime Minister.

0:23:56 > 0:24:01He was, and he had a very

0:24:01 > 0:24:03short political career.

0:24:03 > 0:24:06He wasn't popular because he was a Scot...

0:24:06 > 0:24:10- Oh, dear.- But I don't think that was the only reason.

0:24:10 > 0:24:17He passed unpopular legislation, he introduced a tax on cider,

0:24:17 > 0:24:19which obviously didn't go down very well.

0:24:22 > 0:24:28Do you have any idea why the 3rd Earl was so taken by Ramsay in the first place?

0:24:28 > 0:24:31My understanding is that when Ramsay was in his heyday

0:24:31 > 0:24:35he was acknowledged to be the best British portrait artist.

0:24:35 > 0:24:39I think when Ramsay got a bit older, and Reynolds had developed,

0:24:39 > 0:24:42Reynolds took over that mantle.

0:24:42 > 0:24:47I think it really was a case of who is the best portrait artist in Britain?

0:24:47 > 0:24:50That man was Allan Ramsay.

0:24:53 > 0:24:56- Have you ever had your portrait painted?- No, I haven't, actually.

0:24:56 > 0:25:00- Do you not fancy it?- I do, quite, but I've never got round to it.

0:25:00 > 0:25:03It's difficult to know quite who to go to, isn't it?

0:25:03 > 0:25:07I'd probably be more than likely to go for the Lucian Freud type of option.

0:25:07 > 0:25:09That'd be fantastic.

0:25:09 > 0:25:14I think you'd look quite good in the gear!

0:25:17 > 0:25:23If Johnny Bute does get round to having his portrait painted, the snazzy get-up worn by his ancestor

0:25:23 > 0:25:28in the show-stopping portraits is kept here at Mount Stuart.

0:25:28 > 0:25:30Earl Bute has his breeches...

0:25:30 > 0:25:33- There they are. - This is 250 years old.

0:25:33 > 0:25:36And for an incurable old fop like myself, the chance to reach out

0:25:36 > 0:25:41and touch the past with Mount Stuart's archivist was irresistible.

0:25:41 > 0:25:43You can see how Ramsay's really caught this colour.

0:25:43 > 0:25:48This velvet has such variance in tone.

0:25:48 > 0:25:51- Beautiful.- Tightened there, so that the stockings and

0:25:51 > 0:25:54the rest of his legs would be shown to the best advantage.

0:25:56 > 0:26:00I could slip them on right now!

0:26:00 > 0:26:02Remarkable jacket.

0:26:04 > 0:26:07This is... Vivienne Westwood, eat your heart out.

0:26:07 > 0:26:08Can we see the others...

0:26:08 > 0:26:12I'm frightened to touch it, although I'm desperate to try it on.

0:26:12 > 0:26:19They're sort of little threads wound onto tiny little wires with little jewel things in them.

0:26:20 > 0:26:25This is the business. Beautiful buttons.

0:26:25 > 0:26:28I mean, it's actually not garish.

0:26:28 > 0:26:32If someone were to describe that to you, you'd think that's a bit of bling,

0:26:32 > 0:26:37over the top, but in fact it's very elegant. How old is that?

0:26:37 > 0:26:40- 250 years.- 250 years old.

0:26:40 > 0:26:44And what you have to remember is that Ramsay has looked at this,

0:26:44 > 0:26:49he will have had this in his studio so he could get up close to it and do it in detail.

0:26:49 > 0:26:52There must have been some mornings when Ramsay must have gone,

0:26:52 > 0:26:55"Oh, please, no, don't wear the jacket with the tassels!

0:26:55 > 0:26:57"No, the tassels, I'll have to do all of those!

0:26:57 > 0:27:01"Can you not just wear a plain pair of... Not velvet again!"

0:27:05 > 0:27:08Ramsay's work for the Bute family earned him other fans, too.

0:27:08 > 0:27:13They recommended him to the Prince of Wales, the future George III.

0:27:13 > 0:27:18And in 1760 he was appointed King's painter.

0:27:24 > 0:27:26Ramsay had reached the pinnacle of his career.

0:27:26 > 0:27:34But when he died in 1784, another brilliant Scottish portrait painter was poised to take his place.

0:27:38 > 0:27:40Edinburgh-born Henry Raeburn

0:27:40 > 0:27:42certainly drew on Ramsay's influence,

0:27:42 > 0:27:47but it was his bold technique that would make him famous.

0:27:55 > 0:27:59We know Raeburn was born in 1756 just downriver from here in Stockbridge,

0:27:59 > 0:28:02where the Waters of Leith powered his parents' wool-boiling mill.

0:28:02 > 0:28:05We know he was an apprentice goldsmith here in Edinburgh,

0:28:05 > 0:28:11we know he studied for a time in Italy, but we don't know how he arrived at his technique.

0:28:14 > 0:28:21By the early 1790s Raeburn was displaying an astonishing confidence in the handling of paint.

0:28:21 > 0:28:24He was working with a courage, a vigour and a daring

0:28:24 > 0:28:29that saw him, quite unlike the more studious Ramsay, rarely bother with any preparatory drawings.

0:28:29 > 0:28:31It was just him,

0:28:31 > 0:28:34the sitter and that big, blank canvas.

0:28:34 > 0:28:37He was working without a safety net.

0:28:40 > 0:28:46Raeburn created a purpose-built studio, one of the first in Britain, in Edinburgh's New Town.

0:28:46 > 0:28:51Here he could receive his grand subjects in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

0:28:53 > 0:28:55'Today the building houses a media agency.'

0:28:55 > 0:28:56- Great view.- Isn't it?

0:28:56 > 0:29:01'But you can still see how Raeburn designed the space to give him precise control over the light.'

0:29:01 > 0:29:05The enormous scale of this is because of light?

0:29:05 > 0:29:07That's right.

0:29:07 > 0:29:09It's facing north, as you can see.

0:29:09 > 0:29:12People always say this about artists' studios

0:29:12 > 0:29:15having a northern light, I've never really understood what that meant.

0:29:15 > 0:29:18It means, basically, the positions of the shadows,

0:29:18 > 0:29:22once you've fixed them, don't move because the sun isn't moving.

0:29:22 > 0:29:24This is facing north?

0:29:24 > 0:29:27It's facing virtually due north, across the Fife.

0:29:27 > 0:29:30Because the sun's rising over there and moving that way.

0:29:30 > 0:29:33It doesn't really throw any shadows in here.

0:29:33 > 0:29:36Shadows, light, were so important to Raeburn.

0:29:36 > 0:29:40This was one of his favourite devices in a portrait,

0:29:40 > 0:29:43was very carefully controlled lighting.

0:29:43 > 0:29:49This window, as you can see, is surrounded by a very complicated set of shutters.

0:29:49 > 0:29:52He'd modify where the light was coming from

0:29:52 > 0:29:56so it fell on the subject's head or body just exactly as he wanted.

0:29:56 > 0:30:02Let's say a sitter's coming along, like Mrs Scott Moncrieff here,

0:30:02 > 0:30:06who's this lady in this rather beautiful and alluring picture.

0:30:06 > 0:30:08It's quite a racy picture, I think.

0:30:08 > 0:30:10Yes, you could say that.

0:30:10 > 0:30:16It's got a romantic feeling, it's got quite a distinct erotic feeling. It's a very sensual picture.

0:30:16 > 0:30:20But there lot of exposed flesh there, which I'm quite surprised at.

0:30:20 > 0:30:22I'm pleased with, but...!

0:30:22 > 0:30:29It's a late Empire dress, which emphasised the breasts, showed a lot of the upper area of the chest.

0:30:29 > 0:30:32It was nothing unusual, nothing scandalous about this at the time.

0:30:32 > 0:30:34Raeburn was obviously...

0:30:35 > 0:30:39..quite aware of this lady's charms, he reacted to them.

0:30:39 > 0:30:43And hence, when he reacted to the personality

0:30:43 > 0:30:47or the individuality of the subject, we got a better painting.

0:30:47 > 0:30:50We got a more, in this case, more dramatic, more romantic painting.

0:30:50 > 0:30:52He certainly seems to have made a connection.

0:30:52 > 0:30:59But you can see how important the light was. The light is 50% of that picture.

0:30:59 > 0:31:02But it still looks like a real person.

0:31:02 > 0:31:04It looks like a real human being, with a character.

0:31:04 > 0:31:07Absolutely. Oh, yes, yes.

0:31:07 > 0:31:09If I've come to get my portrait painted,

0:31:09 > 0:31:13I'm the Right Honourable Archibald Capaldi of Capaldi,

0:31:13 > 0:31:14how would it work?

0:31:14 > 0:31:18He would have said - pretty quickly because he worked fast -

0:31:18 > 0:31:21"This is where I would like you to stand."

0:31:21 > 0:31:24- Up on this...? - Up on this podium here.

0:31:24 > 0:31:26Right, so I'll go up here, OK.

0:31:26 > 0:31:31We've had to make do with a coffee table. Why would I be up high like this?

0:31:31 > 0:31:34So that the shadows of your features are tending to fall,

0:31:34 > 0:31:41shadows under the nose, shadows under the chin, and even shadows under the buttons on your coat.

0:31:41 > 0:31:45So how would he actually use the space of the studio, because it's a big room?

0:31:45 > 0:31:49The first thing we must do is make sure that these two doors are wide open.

0:31:49 > 0:31:55- These ones as well?- Because Raeburn, besides painting in here, this room was part of the process as well.

0:31:55 > 0:32:01So these doors would be wide open so there is extra light coming from

0:32:01 > 0:32:03the south side of the building,

0:32:03 > 0:32:09which helps light up the shadow side of your face, which was very dark

0:32:09 > 0:32:11when only the window was lighting you.

0:32:11 > 0:32:16He would then retreat from his easel,

0:32:16 > 0:32:18right across where this

0:32:18 > 0:32:22boardroom table is sitting at the moment, he would be backing,

0:32:22 > 0:32:26he would back right into the other half of this double cube room,

0:32:26 > 0:32:32always looking at you, and he would go back as far as he could until he

0:32:32 > 0:32:36eliminated the tremendously bright light coming in from the north.

0:32:36 > 0:32:41He would stand here sizing up exactly how you look.

0:32:41 > 0:32:47And then, very rapidly, he would stride forward, right across where the table is,

0:32:47 > 0:32:51go up to the easel, and, without actually looking at you at this point,

0:32:51 > 0:32:55he would dash in all the highlights, the forehead, the chin,

0:32:55 > 0:32:59these are always painted with very thick, direct impasto.

0:32:59 > 0:33:02There was no drawing involved in this.

0:33:02 > 0:33:05It was Raeburn's memory and his brush and paint,

0:33:05 > 0:33:10and it went directly onto the canvas and it would begin to grow.

0:33:10 > 0:33:12So he'd run up and down here doing that?

0:33:12 > 0:33:15He's doing a lot of legwork, absolutely.

0:33:39 > 0:33:42'The fearlessness of Henry Raeburn's technique,

0:33:42 > 0:33:48'combined with his piercing instinct for character, made a formidable combination.

0:33:48 > 0:33:54'Centuries later he still exerts a powerful influence over one of Scotland's leading artists.'

0:33:54 > 0:33:56Hi, how are you doing? Nice to see you.

0:33:56 > 0:34:00Alison Watt's work is bold and original.

0:34:00 > 0:34:03She began her career painting portraits,

0:34:03 > 0:34:07but now she's found very different subject matter

0:34:07 > 0:34:09for her sensual paintings.

0:34:15 > 0:34:19From the start, she's had a love affair with Raeburn's work.

0:34:19 > 0:34:22I've only ever seen it out of this context once,

0:34:22 > 0:34:24because it's always here,

0:34:24 > 0:34:28but two years ago I saw it in London at the Royal Academy.

0:34:28 > 0:34:31This picture of William Clunes was hung alongside

0:34:31 > 0:34:35the greats in European portraiture, so you had David and Ingres

0:34:35 > 0:34:37and Reynolds and Gainsborough,

0:34:37 > 0:34:41and this picture easily held its own in that company.

0:34:41 > 0:34:45I remember thinking how important that would've been to Raeburn,

0:34:45 > 0:34:51because throughout his lifetime, he worried about how he was perceived outside of his native Edinburgh.

0:34:51 > 0:34:55Here he was, in revered company,

0:34:55 > 0:34:59and I think that would've given him a lot of pleasure.

0:34:59 > 0:35:03From a painter's point of view, what is interesting to you about this?

0:35:03 > 0:35:09The technical virtuosity displayed in this picture is astonishing.

0:35:09 > 0:35:12On the one hand he has used an incredibly daring composition...

0:35:14 > 0:35:19The first thing I thought was, "Could they not get horse to face us?"

0:35:19 > 0:35:21THEY LAUGH

0:35:21 > 0:35:27And also, Raeburn has given both animal and sitter a strange kind of equality.

0:35:27 > 0:35:30And in certain parts of the painting,

0:35:30 > 0:35:34the horse and the sitter mirror each other to balance the painting.

0:35:34 > 0:35:35Show us.

0:35:41 > 0:35:45These strong dark verticals are incredibly important in the picture.

0:35:45 > 0:35:49The four legs of the horse and the legs of Major Clunes.

0:35:49 > 0:35:54What's great, getting close up, is we get to see Raeburn's technique.

0:35:54 > 0:35:58If you look at the highly-polished riding boots, for example,

0:35:58 > 0:36:00you can see his wet on wet technique.

0:36:00 > 0:36:02What is wet on wet?

0:36:02 > 0:36:07It's when you apply wet paint to paint which is not dry.

0:36:07 > 0:36:11It means there's a fluidity to it, but it also means

0:36:11 > 0:36:15there's a great amount of skill to working in this way

0:36:15 > 0:36:20because you have to employ rapidity in your application of the paint

0:36:20 > 0:36:26in order to retain this incredible freshness and immediacy that you can see in the painting.

0:36:26 > 0:36:32What I love about that is you can see the action of the artist, you can see the speed

0:36:32 > 0:36:35through the brush marks, you can see the paint pulling through the black.

0:36:35 > 0:36:37- Yes.- And it's so assured.

0:36:37 > 0:36:41A moment has been trapped in time, you actually see the mark Raeburn made,

0:36:41 > 0:36:44and I love to see that in a painting.

0:36:45 > 0:36:46Look at the way he's used colour.

0:36:46 > 0:36:51If you look at that extraordinary vermilion in the waistcoat,

0:36:51 > 0:36:54it has a way of

0:36:54 > 0:36:56punctuating the entire painting.

0:36:56 > 0:36:59And yet at the same time it holds together the whole composition.

0:36:59 > 0:37:04- You mean on his vest? - Yeah. This incredible colour and the way he's painted it.

0:37:04 > 0:37:08The paint looks deceptively simple, it looks as if it's been applied

0:37:08 > 0:37:13in flat slabs of colour, and that really accentuates the lighting in the painting.

0:37:13 > 0:37:17But the other side of that is he loses none of the important detail.

0:37:17 > 0:37:22So he manages to do both. This is really forward-thinking painting.

0:37:22 > 0:37:24I think when looking at Raeburn,

0:37:24 > 0:37:29you automatically use the words "courage" and "vigour" and "energy".

0:37:29 > 0:37:32It's much more than a likeness.

0:37:33 > 0:37:35It is lovely.

0:37:42 > 0:37:45Until the Enlightenment, Scotland had been something

0:37:45 > 0:37:50of an intellectual backwater dominated by a repressive Church.

0:37:50 > 0:37:54But by the late 18th century it was Europe's most literate society,

0:37:54 > 0:37:57alive with sophisticated thinking and debate.

0:37:59 > 0:38:02Scots now led the world in science and medicine,

0:38:02 > 0:38:10and the new, deeper understanding of how the human body works was picked up by Scottish artists.

0:38:10 > 0:38:15Theories about perception were at the heart of Enlightenment thinking.

0:38:15 > 0:38:18Edinburgh intellectuals were wrestling with the big ideas,

0:38:18 > 0:38:23and it's obvious from some of his later works that Raeburn was in on the debate.

0:38:23 > 0:38:29The fact that perception was a mental process appealed to Raeburn.

0:38:29 > 0:38:34His work reflects the idea that the brain can make a meaningful image

0:38:34 > 0:38:37out of patterns of tone and colour.

0:38:37 > 0:38:44Science and art truly became bedfellows, when Edinburgh surgeon, Charles Bell, produced a book,

0:38:44 > 0:38:48On The Anatomy Of Expression In Painting.

0:38:48 > 0:38:52It was specifically aimed at artists.

0:38:52 > 0:38:56Bell saw an important connection between science and art.

0:38:56 > 0:39:02Painting could provide a study of the physical effect of the mind on the body.

0:39:02 > 0:39:08Put simply, if you painted somebody's portrait, you got an insight into the sitter's mind.

0:39:08 > 0:39:11It was written all over their face.

0:39:11 > 0:39:14Scottish painters like David Wilkie

0:39:14 > 0:39:17took the new anatomical knowledge to heart.

0:39:17 > 0:39:20When he paints his portrait of a whole family,

0:39:20 > 0:39:24their expressions make it clear how uncomfortable they are.

0:39:24 > 0:39:29Wilkie painted the Chalmers-Bethune family when he was just 19.

0:39:29 > 0:39:33It seems to me that the Scottish tradition of portraiture,

0:39:33 > 0:39:36which blossomed after the Reformation,

0:39:36 > 0:39:39was energised by the Enlightenment,

0:39:39 > 0:39:43as artists and philosophers alike explored what it is to be human.

0:39:44 > 0:39:48Scotland's forward-thinking men of science and philosophy

0:39:48 > 0:39:52had put this small country at the centre of European thought.

0:39:52 > 0:39:59And where Ramsay had paved the way, other Scottish painters now followed.

0:40:09 > 0:40:13It was a vibrant time of cultural exchange and cross-fertilisation.

0:40:15 > 0:40:18Scottish artists, full of Enlightenment ideas,

0:40:18 > 0:40:23travelled abroad, where they fully embraced the Continental arts scene.

0:40:27 > 0:40:31Inspired by ancient art and literature, they would return home,

0:40:31 > 0:40:34to create a new and enduring portrait of Scotland.

0:40:38 > 0:40:41The Grand Tour craze was at its height.

0:40:41 > 0:40:46Wealthy aristocrats finished their education with an extensive tour of Europe.

0:40:48 > 0:40:53The idea was to broaden their horizons with exposure to art and culture.

0:40:53 > 0:40:55And it took some dedication.

0:40:55 > 0:40:58The guidebooks recommended three hours' sightseeing

0:40:58 > 0:41:02each morning for six weeks, and that was just in Rome!

0:41:06 > 0:41:12Archaeological discoveries in Italy meant more was known about the classical world than ever before.

0:41:14 > 0:41:19This led to a neo-classical revival in art, as painters

0:41:19 > 0:41:23re-created in their imagination scenes from ancient Roman history.

0:41:25 > 0:41:29Rome's cafes buzzed with intellectual debate.

0:41:29 > 0:41:34And at the heart of this community was Scottish painter Gavin Hamilton.

0:41:35 > 0:41:39Hamilton was the Scottish Enlightenment's ambassador in Italy.

0:41:39 > 0:41:40In a series of epic paintings,

0:41:40 > 0:41:44he explored the latest thinking about the origin of society.

0:41:48 > 0:41:51Many artists were mining the classical world,

0:41:51 > 0:41:55but Hamilton went right back to Homer for inspiration.

0:42:02 > 0:42:04Hamilton doesn't glorify violent heroism.

0:42:04 > 0:42:09Like Hume, he champions sympathy and compassion.

0:42:09 > 0:42:14These are the values that make us human, moral and civilised.

0:42:16 > 0:42:23Around Hamilton, with his ground-breaking neo-classical work and gregarious personality,

0:42:23 > 0:42:26a new Scottish art school blossomed in Rome.

0:42:29 > 0:42:34But unlike the well-funded aristocrats on the Grand Tour, Hamilton had to earn a living.

0:42:34 > 0:42:39History painting was his passion, but portraiture offered a steady income.

0:42:40 > 0:42:43- There she is.- Elizabeth.

0:42:43 > 0:42:45Elizabeth Gunning.

0:42:45 > 0:42:48One of the famous Miss Gunnings.

0:42:48 > 0:42:52She was the youngest of two sisters.

0:42:52 > 0:42:53Her elder sister was Maria.

0:42:53 > 0:42:57Irish. And her mother brought her over to England

0:42:57 > 0:43:00to put her on the marriage market.

0:43:00 > 0:43:04- And what were they famed for? - Beauty. Not much else.

0:43:06 > 0:43:10The newspapers and magazines of the day, before they got married,

0:43:10 > 0:43:16followed their every move, I think waiting for them to fall from virtue.

0:43:16 > 0:43:19And this is painted shortly after she got married.

0:43:19 > 0:43:26Interesting, though, with all due respect to the Duchess of Hamilton, as was,

0:43:26 > 0:43:32it's not the kind of beauty that has the same currency in our society.

0:43:32 > 0:43:37That's true. I think she was what we might call a statuesque beauty.

0:43:37 > 0:43:39- She's quite big.- She's a big girl.

0:43:39 > 0:43:45Both girls were tall, they had very regular features, apparently, and remarkable figures.

0:43:45 > 0:43:48Elizabeth's son

0:43:48 > 0:43:49was something of a character.

0:43:49 > 0:43:56He was. He possibly took a bit after his father, who was said to have been

0:43:56 > 0:44:02a bit of a rake before he married Elizabeth, fond of the gaming table,

0:44:02 > 0:44:04fond of ladies and fond of drink.

0:44:04 > 0:44:06I think I'd like to meet him.

0:44:06 > 0:44:10- Good. Let's go and find him. - Can we do that?- Yep.- All right. That was lovely.

0:44:13 > 0:44:17Let's go and see Mrs Hamilton's offspring.

0:44:17 > 0:44:19Here he is.

0:44:19 > 0:44:21- Douglas.- Douglas.

0:44:21 > 0:44:25- Douglas Hamilton.- Douglas Hamilton, who becomes the eighth duke.

0:44:25 > 0:44:29And this also is painted by Gavin Hamilton.

0:44:29 > 0:44:31Yes, but 20 years later.

0:44:31 > 0:44:37So he's really quite a hot portrait painter, if he wanted to be?

0:44:37 > 0:44:41He could have been. By the time this portrait was being painted,

0:44:41 > 0:44:44Gavin Hamilton had really stopped working as a portrait painter.

0:44:44 > 0:44:48He didn't need to. He was painting his big, historical canvases,

0:44:48 > 0:44:52he was working as an archaeologist, he was working as a dealer.

0:44:52 > 0:44:57This is set, clearly, in Italy somewhere.

0:44:57 > 0:45:00It's in Rome, and they're looking down onto the Forum.

0:45:00 > 0:45:04They're on the Capitol Hill and looking down.

0:45:04 > 0:45:08The Forum... If Rome was the high point of the Grand Tour,

0:45:08 > 0:45:11the Forum was probably the high point of Rome.

0:45:11 > 0:45:16But their interest in the classical world,

0:45:16 > 0:45:21it's not just in Roman culture, but it's in Greek culture as well.

0:45:21 > 0:45:25Yes, this is the period when it begins to broaden out from Rome

0:45:25 > 0:45:29to an even more distant, more authentic past, to Greece.

0:45:29 > 0:45:36And because of archaeology, people are beginning to see the ancient world in a different way

0:45:36 > 0:45:40- from what they had before, which had been largely imagined. - Yes. Or literary.

0:45:40 > 0:45:45But now they're beginning to accumulate real knowledge.

0:45:45 > 0:45:52And a lot of pre-conceptions about the classical past begin to shift as knowledge increases.

0:45:52 > 0:45:58Can you give us an idea of Gavin Hamilton's influence and impact?

0:45:58 > 0:46:03He begins to define and spread neo-classical taste.

0:46:03 > 0:46:08His great history paintings were extremely influential

0:46:08 > 0:46:11to the next generation of artists all across Europe.

0:46:16 > 0:46:19And the generation that followed Hamilton

0:46:19 > 0:46:22no longer had to rely solely on their imagination.

0:46:22 > 0:46:26The new science of archaeology was providing physical evidence

0:46:26 > 0:46:30of classical art, going right back to Homer's time.

0:46:30 > 0:46:35Recently discovered ancient pottery showed people in profile, rather than face on.

0:46:36 > 0:46:37David Allan,

0:46:37 > 0:46:42one of Hamilton's young proteges, used this evidence when he painted

0:46:42 > 0:46:44Pliny's classical legend,

0:46:44 > 0:46:48which describes the origin of painting itself.

0:46:57 > 0:47:02Who knows who painted the first picture or made the first drawing,

0:47:02 > 0:47:07who knows where it was, whether it was on a cave wall or on a sandy beach.

0:47:09 > 0:47:11Nobody knows.

0:47:11 > 0:47:17But there is a legend that was created by Pliny in Roman times...

0:47:20 > 0:47:21..of the origin of painting.

0:47:24 > 0:47:28And the legend features Dibutades,

0:47:28 > 0:47:31the daughter of a Corinthian potter...

0:47:33 > 0:47:37..who, on the eve of battle,

0:47:37 > 0:47:40sketches her lover's profile

0:47:40 > 0:47:44cast from his shadow on the wall.

0:47:45 > 0:47:49It's a legend, really, that says

0:47:49 > 0:47:51the first picture

0:47:51 > 0:47:53was a portrait,

0:47:53 > 0:47:56and that the reason that it was done

0:47:56 > 0:47:58was love.

0:48:01 > 0:48:03But another interesting point,

0:48:03 > 0:48:06to me, anyway, about this picture,

0:48:06 > 0:48:12is if we look at the young man's profile,

0:48:12 > 0:48:17we'll see, as has been remarked many times before...

0:48:20 > 0:48:24..that the classical profile

0:48:24 > 0:48:30is shared with none other than the King himself, Elvis Presley.

0:48:32 > 0:48:38This classical Lisa Marie Presley

0:48:38 > 0:48:44is drawing the quiff of her lover.

0:48:45 > 0:48:48HE IMITATE ELVIS SINGING

0:48:48 > 0:48:50Elvis has left the museum.

0:49:05 > 0:49:11Fascination with ancient history was not confined to Gavin Hamilton's circle in Rome.

0:49:11 > 0:49:15Here in Scotland, the discovery of an epic poem,

0:49:15 > 0:49:19written in Gaelic, was about to ignite an interest in the primitive past.

0:49:24 > 0:49:30The man behind the discovery was James Macpherson, who claimed to have found fragments of poetry

0:49:30 > 0:49:34written by a Celtic bard named Ossian.

0:49:34 > 0:49:40When the work was published in the 1760s, Ossian was hailed as Scotland's answer to Homer.

0:49:40 > 0:49:44Scottish artists turned their back on the ancient classical world

0:49:44 > 0:49:47in favour of their own primitive past.

0:49:52 > 0:49:55I'm following the path taken by hordes of tourists,

0:49:55 > 0:50:00all keen to see the memorial to Ossian created in the 18th century by the Duke of Atholl,

0:50:00 > 0:50:02here on his estate.

0:50:04 > 0:50:07- Hi, Ben. How are you doing?- Welcome. Thank very much.

0:50:11 > 0:50:16'The fact that Ossian turned out to be largely fake didn't diminish its reception.'

0:50:16 > 0:50:19This was the number one best-seller of its day.

0:50:19 > 0:50:22Napoleon carried a copy, everybody had copies.

0:50:22 > 0:50:24This became a cult, a craze.

0:50:24 > 0:50:30- But whether he really existed, who knows?- But as a character, he became very powerful.

0:50:30 > 0:50:33- As a character, he was very real. - But he certainly was believed in.

0:50:33 > 0:50:40What he stood for was believed in, the fact he stood for heroic deeds and fantastic tales

0:50:40 > 0:50:46and story-telling, and a very strong culture going way back into the distant past.

0:50:46 > 0:50:49- So he gave Scotland an identity? - Going way back, yes.

0:50:49 > 0:50:52And this is his house.

0:50:52 > 0:50:55Not so much a house, it's a memorial to Ossian.

0:50:55 > 0:50:59- And that's what we're going to see now.- That's exactly what we're going to see now.

0:50:59 > 0:51:04WATERFALL GUSHES

0:51:04 > 0:51:08So the ladies and gentleman who came here, what would they have been confronted with here?

0:51:08 > 0:51:14They'd be confronted with the round end of the building, the stone door. So you push open the door,

0:51:14 > 0:51:20and as you come in, that's when you'd be confronted, in the gloom, with Ossian appearing before you.

0:51:20 > 0:51:24And also notice how you've almost lost the sound of the waterfall.

0:51:24 > 0:51:27Oh, yeah, you can hardly hear it.

0:51:27 > 0:51:29It's gone very quiet.

0:51:29 > 0:51:32But then you come forward.

0:51:32 > 0:51:35WATERFALL ROARS

0:51:35 > 0:51:39And you'd have been taken to the main chamber.

0:51:41 > 0:51:43- And you have the roar.- And the roar.

0:51:43 > 0:51:48When you go through, you come out to the falls. They're lovely. Absolutely beautiful.

0:51:48 > 0:51:51Oh, my God. Fantastic.

0:51:53 > 0:51:58"Beneath the aged trees, old Ossian sat on the moss

0:51:58 > 0:52:00"The last of the race of Fingal

0:52:02 > 0:52:06"I hear the river below murmuring hoarsely over the stones

0:52:06 > 0:52:09"What dost thou, O river, to me?"

0:52:17 > 0:52:24The popularity of Ossian proved there was a real appetite for authentic Scottish heritage.

0:52:24 > 0:52:30So when a new, and genuine, rustic poet emerged, in the shape of Robert Burns,

0:52:30 > 0:52:37a farmer's son from Ayrshire, his public were ready and waiting.

0:52:38 > 0:52:42When Robert Burns arrived in Edinburgh in 1786,

0:52:42 > 0:52:48all he had to his name was a small volume of poetry called Poems, Chiefly In The Scottish Dialect.

0:52:48 > 0:52:51Not the catchiest of titles.

0:52:51 > 0:52:53But it became a literary sensation.

0:52:53 > 0:53:00All of Edinburgh wanted to meet the ploughman poet, and very soon Burns found himself drinking

0:53:00 > 0:53:04with Enlightenment philosophers and making eyes at eminent socialites.

0:53:08 > 0:53:11Of course, Burns was a poet, not a painter,

0:53:11 > 0:53:15but it was his attitude to his own image that would help cement his reputation

0:53:15 > 0:53:18as one of the great icons of Scottish culture.

0:53:19 > 0:53:27It seems to me we have a very specific view of Burns, visually.

0:53:27 > 0:53:29The best known portraits of Burns

0:53:29 > 0:53:34result from the production of the Edinburgh Edition in 1787,

0:53:34 > 0:53:37that is the Nasmyth oil and the Beugo engraving.

0:53:37 > 0:53:40And we've a very interesting comparison between these two.

0:53:40 > 0:53:44- This is the image that most people would recognise. - That's the chocolate box poet.

0:53:46 > 0:53:48So his opinion of this was what?

0:53:48 > 0:53:52His opinion was that it didn't catch the likeness as well

0:53:52 > 0:53:54as the engraving that was derived from it.

0:53:54 > 0:53:57He has hardened the features.

0:53:57 > 0:54:02This has the stamp of authenticity that the original oil lacks.

0:54:02 > 0:54:05This one here, he looks a bit meatier.

0:54:05 > 0:54:07He looks bit more like Sean Connery!

0:54:07 > 0:54:09He looks more able to hold a plough,

0:54:09 > 0:54:11and actually more like the ploughman poet.

0:54:11 > 0:54:16You can imagine that below here were the farmers boots, which so attracted the ladies of Edinburgh.

0:54:16 > 0:54:21The one I like the best is this one at the end.

0:54:21 > 0:54:23The Reid miniature.

0:54:23 > 0:54:28I don't know whether that's because it's so different from the others.

0:54:28 > 0:54:31This was done about a year before Burns' death.

0:54:31 > 0:54:33We know that he himself liked this.

0:54:33 > 0:54:38He seems to have caught Burns entirely to Burns' satisfaction.

0:54:38 > 0:54:41I wonder if he thought this was his good side?

0:54:41 > 0:54:43Because they're all from this side!

0:54:43 > 0:54:47- Did he have a horrible wart or something?!- He may have done!

0:54:47 > 0:54:51You know, if this had happened in the 20th century,

0:54:51 > 0:54:55you'd almost think that some design consultant

0:54:55 > 0:54:58- had said to Robert Burns, "Let's just make one image." - Mm. But it's all...

0:54:58 > 0:55:03"Let's get one image and put that out there, and just hit it again and again and again."

0:55:03 > 0:55:05But 20th century, or 21st century marketing is nothing new.

0:55:05 > 0:55:09They knew all about it in the 18th century. You had to sell yourself.

0:55:09 > 0:55:12You had to sell an image. Pictures sold books.

0:55:12 > 0:55:19And yet, in doing that, Beugo gave us the definitive image of Burns, for all time.

0:55:26 > 0:55:31'Contemporary Scottish artist Calum Colvin has an inventive take on portraiture.

0:55:34 > 0:55:39'Calum's subverted iconic Scottish images throughout his career.

0:55:39 > 0:55:43'And I get the impression Burns particularly intrigues him.'

0:55:43 > 0:55:46What's great about this, and I really like your work...

0:55:46 > 0:55:51but it's usually always seen, obviously, in photographic form...

0:55:51 > 0:55:56- Mm-hm.- ..and in a way, this is what the photograph always tempts me to do,

0:55:56 > 0:56:01- is to come to the place where the bits are.- Mm-hm.

0:56:01 > 0:56:06And find the spot where all the bits coalesce into the portrait.

0:56:06 > 0:56:09Uh-huh. If you look at a work of art and just move on,

0:56:09 > 0:56:12it hasn't really done its job.

0:56:12 > 0:56:14And I think with my work,

0:56:14 > 0:56:18even if they don't like it, people feel obliged to try to figure out what it is they're looking at.

0:56:18 > 0:56:22So this mixture of painting, sculpture, photography...

0:56:22 > 0:56:24There is kind of process of decoding.

0:56:24 > 0:56:28As I often do with pictures, it's a basic structure

0:56:28 > 0:56:31from an original image, which I subvert, and turn into something else.

0:56:31 > 0:56:35Yeah. But how do you create...?

0:56:35 > 0:56:39How do you break the image of Burns down into the bits?

0:56:39 > 0:56:45I have all my props... If you imagine an unpainted set of props,

0:56:45 > 0:56:50and then I get an acetate, something like...

0:56:50 > 0:56:54This is taken from a stamp that I found in a book of Burns ephemera.

0:56:54 > 0:56:56- This is what I made...- Right.

0:56:56 > 0:57:01- A kind of template.- Right.- And then I kind of look and figure out,

0:57:01 > 0:57:04- I want this kind of rearing, rebel horse...- Right.

0:57:04 > 0:57:09- And I want Burns to appear within that.- Uh-huh.- Then I knew that I was gonna paint the flag over the thing.

0:57:09 > 0:57:14So I look and I move around. And once I've decided the position, I move my camera, which is over here,

0:57:14 > 0:57:18- into that position.- Mm-hm. - And then it's just a simple...

0:57:18 > 0:57:24It is simple, but it's a laborious process, of just painting.

0:57:24 > 0:57:28I'm interested in the fact that this is actually a very radical form of portraiture.

0:57:28 > 0:57:32That you're still very deliberately painting a picture,

0:57:32 > 0:57:34a recognisable picture, of a human being.

0:57:34 > 0:57:38- Robbie Burns appears in quite a lot of your work.- Yes.

0:57:38 > 0:57:42Do you respond then to the political element in him?

0:57:42 > 0:57:44There are all kinds of elements, I think.

0:57:44 > 0:57:46And that's the beauty of Burns.

0:57:46 > 0:57:48It's like an allegorical life.

0:57:48 > 0:57:51You can pick up so many things from it.

0:57:51 > 0:57:58There's Burns the rebel, Burns the radical, Burns the lover, Burns the icon.

0:57:58 > 0:58:01And so you can use an image of Burns to have a go, as I'm doing here,

0:58:01 > 0:58:06to have a go at bankrupt capitalism, if you like.

0:58:06 > 0:58:09- Yes.- That particular period in Scottish history I find fascinating,

0:58:09 > 0:58:12because it's the period when Scotland's history is forged.

0:58:12 > 0:58:17And the notion that a country's culture is part-history, part-invention.

0:58:19 > 0:58:22- It is open, isn't it?- Yeah.

0:58:22 > 0:58:26- It's, erm, yep... - It takes a bit of practice.

0:58:26 > 0:58:29- Oh, it's upside down! - It's upside down, yeah.

0:58:29 > 0:58:31You didn't tell me that.

0:58:31 > 0:58:32That's great.

0:58:43 > 0:58:47This forging of Scottish identity by writers and artists

0:58:47 > 0:58:51would soon produce a new and enduring portrait of Scotland.

0:58:55 > 0:58:56By the end of the 18th century,

0:58:56 > 0:59:00Scotland was the fastest-industrialising nation in Europe.

0:59:07 > 0:59:13Enlightenment faith in reason and progress seemed out of tune with the times.

0:59:13 > 0:59:17It was replaced by a Romantic obsession with imaginative freedom,

0:59:17 > 0:59:20as artists sought refuge in the natural world.

0:59:25 > 0:59:29Scottish painters now explored human experience on a broader canvas,

0:59:29 > 0:59:34defining the Highlands as a rural idyll, an almost utopian society.

0:59:40 > 0:59:46The outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1799 put an end to the typical Rome-centred Grand Tour.

0:59:50 > 0:59:56So would-be tourists were looking elsewhere to experience ancient culture.

0:59:56 > 0:59:59And one increasingly popular location was the Scottish Highlands.

1:00:02 > 1:00:07The poetry of Ossian and Burns had already created a romantic image of the Highlands,

1:00:07 > 1:00:12and the work of Walter Scott would soon make them Europe's new must-see destination.

1:00:25 > 1:00:29Sir Walter Scott's ears are proving very difficult to find for me.

1:00:32 > 1:00:35Erm... That's what they said of Scott -

1:00:35 > 1:00:39for all his imagination and vigour, he had very, very flat ears.

1:00:40 > 1:00:43They didn't really say that, I said that.

1:00:43 > 1:00:51Scott's first novel, Waverley, came out in 1814, and became a bestseller across Europe.

1:00:51 > 1:00:55It's the story of a young Englishman who travels to the Highlands,

1:00:55 > 1:00:57at a turbulent time in Scotland's history.

1:00:57 > 1:01:02Scott describes the landscape as sublimely romantic,

1:01:02 > 1:01:05and the Highlanders themselves as brutal but loyal.

1:01:10 > 1:01:12There. That'll do.

1:01:30 > 1:01:36Waverley changed the way Scots saw their own past, and boosted the country's image abroad.

1:01:36 > 1:01:40And it transformed how the Highlands were perceived.

1:01:43 > 1:01:47The desolate landscape was given a new spin -

1:01:47 > 1:01:54it was romantic. And ironically, it very quickly became filled up with tourists in search of emptiness.

1:02:00 > 1:02:05Almost single-handedly, Walter Scott brought together all the elements

1:02:05 > 1:02:10that would gel in the global imagination into the Scottish stereotype.

1:02:10 > 1:02:13And it's an identity that persists to this very day.

1:02:14 > 1:02:21By the mid-19th century, the Highlands had become an aristocratic adventure playground -

1:02:21 > 1:02:26a development symbolised by the rebuilding of Balmoral Castle

1:02:26 > 1:02:29as a holiday home for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

1:02:31 > 1:02:37Its surrounding wildlife was immortalised by English painter Edwin Landseer.

1:02:37 > 1:02:41This portrait celebrates a Highland pleasure ground,

1:02:41 > 1:02:45where hunting the noble stag was a popular sport.

1:02:45 > 1:02:49It's still an image with great international currency.

1:02:49 > 1:02:51But it's bogus.

1:02:51 > 1:02:53It's an anachronism.

1:02:53 > 1:02:58Scotland seen through the eyes of Victorian landed gentry.

1:03:03 > 1:03:08And it overlooks the dark side to all this romantic emptiness.

1:03:08 > 1:03:14The fact that this deserted landscape was silent witness to the tragedy of the Clearances.

1:03:14 > 1:03:20It was an uncomfortable fact that the pleasure-seeking Victorians chose to overlook.

1:03:34 > 1:03:38Emigration from Scotland had been going on since the middle of the 18th century.

1:03:41 > 1:03:44But during the infamous Highland Clearances,

1:03:44 > 1:03:49tens of thousands of people were driven out to make way for sheep farming.

1:03:51 > 1:03:58In a generation, Scotland lost its clan system and a way of life that had existed for hundreds of years.

1:04:00 > 1:04:03Whole communities were obliterated,

1:04:03 > 1:04:06leaving an eerily empty landscape.

1:04:12 > 1:04:16The Clearances were, and still are, an emotive subject,

1:04:16 > 1:04:18one that was tackled by several artists.

1:04:18 > 1:04:22But most seemed defeated by the sheer human scale

1:04:22 > 1:04:27of what was one of the greatest social transformations in Scottish history.

1:04:30 > 1:04:31This image of the Clearances

1:04:31 > 1:04:35was painted by Thomas Faed, a Scottish artist based in London.

1:04:37 > 1:04:42It's one of the very few contemporary comments on the tragic period.

1:04:42 > 1:04:46But it's a sentimentalised image to suit Victorian tastes.

1:04:52 > 1:04:55In paintings by Glasgow artist Horatio McCulloch,

1:04:55 > 1:05:00the Scottish people themselves are conspicuous by their absence.

1:05:02 > 1:05:06McCulloch, like Scott, romanticised the Highland landscape,

1:05:06 > 1:05:07and played a major part

1:05:07 > 1:05:10in cementing the stereotyped portrait of Scotland.

1:05:24 > 1:05:31As the 19th century drew to a close, the harsh reality of human experience during The Clearances

1:05:31 > 1:05:34was at odds with the romantic myth.

1:05:37 > 1:05:41The Highlanders that remained were struggling to survive.

1:05:41 > 1:05:46And many were drawn to Scotland's booming cities.

1:05:49 > 1:05:54Across Britain, the Industrial Revolution was transforming people's worlds.

1:05:54 > 1:05:58Almost every aspect of life was affected by the explosion of technology.

1:06:08 > 1:06:11By the end of the 19th century, Scotland was changing.

1:06:11 > 1:06:15Glasgow had been transformed into a great industrial city

1:06:15 > 1:06:18and trading port, and was second only to London

1:06:18 > 1:06:22as the driving force behind the British Empire.

1:06:28 > 1:06:32Glasgow now lead the world in shipbuilding.

1:06:32 > 1:06:35It throbbed with the sounds of thriving industry.

1:06:35 > 1:06:38Here was a city of wealth and self-confidence -

1:06:38 > 1:06:41all fuel for a burgeoning arts scene.

1:06:43 > 1:06:47In May 1901, one of Britain's greatest art collections

1:06:47 > 1:06:50was brought together here at Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

1:06:56 > 1:07:02Back in Allan Ramsay's day, the main patrons of the arts were royalty and toffs.

1:07:02 > 1:07:06But, gradually, democracy was filtering into the world of art.

1:07:06 > 1:07:12And here in Glasgow, wealthy industrialists were now backing the city's cultural explosion.

1:07:17 > 1:07:20As well as acquiring work by up-and-coming Scottish artists.

1:07:20 > 1:07:23These forward-thinking newcomers to the art scene

1:07:23 > 1:07:26acquired a taste for modern European art.

1:07:26 > 1:07:30Key to satisfying their appetite, was Alexander Reid,

1:07:30 > 1:07:32a Glaswegian art dealer.

1:07:32 > 1:07:37This portrait of him was painted by his former flatmate in Paris -

1:07:37 > 1:07:38Vincent Van Gogh.

1:07:43 > 1:07:46In 1892, Degas' daring painting of a prostitute

1:07:46 > 1:07:48went up for sale in London.

1:07:48 > 1:07:53The public greeted this "degenerate" image with hisses.

1:07:53 > 1:07:57But Reid bought it, and quickly sold it on to a Glasgow businessman.

1:07:59 > 1:08:03At a time when Whistler and Millais were the big names in London,

1:08:03 > 1:08:06Reid's gallery was championing the French Impressionists,

1:08:06 > 1:08:11Japanese prints, and a new group of Scottish painters.

1:08:11 > 1:08:14The opening night of their first group exhibition

1:08:14 > 1:08:16was the social event of the year.

1:08:16 > 1:08:20And the word was, these artists were the next big thing.

1:08:20 > 1:08:23They were dubbed The Glasgow Boys, and for the next 20 years,

1:08:23 > 1:08:27they revolutionised Scottish painting.

1:08:34 > 1:08:36The Boys, as they preferred to be known,

1:08:36 > 1:08:40took new painting styles from Europe and made them their own.

1:08:42 > 1:08:45Their figurative work focused on real people,

1:08:45 > 1:08:47often painted in the open air.

1:08:47 > 1:08:49They were rebelling against

1:08:49 > 1:08:51traditional Victorian sentimentality.

1:08:54 > 1:08:56We can see quite clearly the contrast

1:08:56 > 1:09:00between this totally unsentimental image...

1:09:00 > 1:09:04- Exactly.- ..and this slightly more chocolate boxy, theatrical...

1:09:04 > 1:09:07It is, it is exactly chocolate box.

1:09:07 > 1:09:10Thomas Faed, here, is painting

1:09:10 > 1:09:13the kind of picture that they objected to.

1:09:13 > 1:09:17Because he's taking a scene from everyday life, if you like,

1:09:17 > 1:09:19but sentimentalising it -

1:09:19 > 1:09:22a rather patronising view of the working classes.

1:09:22 > 1:09:24I mean, The Boys called this kind of painting gluepot.

1:09:24 > 1:09:26Glue pot...

1:09:26 > 1:09:28Glue pot. Because the...

1:09:28 > 1:09:33I mean, lesser painters than Faed, who worked in this manner,

1:09:33 > 1:09:35they weren't terribly good painters.

1:09:35 > 1:09:39And they would hide their, er, inadequacies by giving their pictures

1:09:39 > 1:09:45a coat of dark brown varnish, which immediately made them look like

1:09:45 > 1:09:47- old master paintings.- Yes.

1:09:47 > 1:09:52They were called glue pots because, like glue, it had to be melted

1:09:52 > 1:09:55- in a pot on a stove.- Yes.

1:09:55 > 1:09:58And it was a lovely term of abuse that The Boys would use regularly.

1:09:58 > 1:10:02Yes, I like it. What's lovely about this as well is, again, and you see

1:10:02 > 1:10:07it over and over again, it's what painting is so much about, is light.

1:10:07 > 1:10:10Yes, but here, you're very much aware of the brush.

1:10:10 > 1:10:15This was a technique The Boys used to create perspective.

1:10:15 > 1:10:18They would put their figures up against

1:10:18 > 1:10:21the plane of the canvas like this, and the faces would be detailed.

1:10:21 > 1:10:23- Yes.- But to create depth,

1:10:23 > 1:10:29they made the brush strokes of the supposed distance broader and softer.

1:10:29 > 1:10:31Right. So these actual...

1:10:31 > 1:10:35The size of the blocks of colour that they use,

1:10:35 > 1:10:40do you use larger blocks further away, and smaller ones closer?

1:10:40 > 1:10:43- Yes. Absolutely. - As we can see around here.

1:10:45 > 1:10:50This is one of the earliest pictures, erm,

1:10:50 > 1:10:53- that showed Guthrie's promise.- Aha.

1:10:53 > 1:10:56In 1881, he went to Brig o' Turk

1:10:56 > 1:10:59and a young boy died in the burn.

1:10:59 > 1:11:03And Guthrie made a sketch of all of the villagers

1:11:03 > 1:11:07and the young boy's friend, standing outside his cottage,

1:11:07 > 1:11:10with the coffin across two chairs.

1:11:10 > 1:11:15He came back to Glasgow, and he spent winter painting this picture.

1:11:15 > 1:11:22And so you've just got this line of light, which silhouettes the heads,

1:11:22 > 1:11:28so your eye is drawn to this, kind of, crosshair

1:11:28 > 1:11:32of the constant horizontal with each of the heads

1:11:32 > 1:11:35making a vertical and propping up through it.

1:11:35 > 1:11:41And also you see the courage of actually losing...

1:11:42 > 1:11:47..detail. Losing the dog, losing the shapes of the chair,

1:11:47 > 1:11:49the shapes of the coffin, etc.

1:11:49 > 1:11:51I think it's wonderful.

1:12:02 > 1:12:04I can see how Guthrie was influenced

1:12:04 > 1:12:07by the Impressionist approach to tone and light.

1:12:08 > 1:12:11Which was all about capturing a moment in time.

1:12:18 > 1:12:21And with the rise of the photographic portrait,

1:12:21 > 1:12:26painters were now free to express nature rather than simply mirror it.

1:12:29 > 1:12:32By the turn of the century, artists all over Europe were absorbing

1:12:32 > 1:12:36revolutionary ideas in science, psychology and philosophy.

1:12:36 > 1:12:40New knowledge about the mind and how we perceive the world

1:12:40 > 1:12:44lead to radical changes in artistic representation.

1:12:46 > 1:12:49The basis of modernism, as it would come to be known,

1:12:49 > 1:12:51was that experience is fragmented.

1:12:51 > 1:12:55A person is more than the sum of their parts.

1:12:55 > 1:12:59Paris had overtaken Rome as the place for artists to study.

1:12:59 > 1:13:03And it was here that an influential group of Edinburgh artists,

1:13:03 > 1:13:06now known as the Scottish Colourists, all spent time.

1:13:06 > 1:13:10They were heavily influenced by what they learnt in France,

1:13:10 > 1:13:12and were responsible for bringing

1:13:12 > 1:13:15vivid and daring colour to Scottish art.

1:13:15 > 1:13:17Here at Edinburgh's City Art Centre,

1:13:17 > 1:13:20I'm meeting one of their masterpieces -

1:13:20 > 1:13:22the Blue Hat,

1:13:22 > 1:13:27by the most experimental of the Scottish Colourists, JD Fergusson.

1:13:33 > 1:13:36Very much a private viewing we've got here.

1:13:36 > 1:13:40Just me and the dozens of you out there.

1:13:41 > 1:13:42It's fantastic.

1:13:42 > 1:13:46This is one of the most important pictures

1:13:46 > 1:13:49in the development of Scottish art.

1:13:49 > 1:13:52And I'm gonna have a little go at sketching it.

1:13:55 > 1:14:02I don't quite know how I'm going to, er, do this.

1:14:02 > 1:14:09Because this image is, above all else, painterly.

1:14:09 > 1:14:14I think I'm gonna have to put the old specs on here.

1:14:18 > 1:14:21Ah, they're over there. I'll have to go and get them.

1:14:26 > 1:14:27Ah!

1:14:30 > 1:14:32It's the wrong specs!

1:14:32 > 1:14:34Sorry about this!

1:14:35 > 1:14:37Ah...

1:14:39 > 1:14:43But for Scottish art and Scottish portraiture,

1:14:43 > 1:14:47there's a new vigour here, new energy.

1:14:49 > 1:14:53A boldness with line and colour.

1:14:53 > 1:14:55An almost abstract quality.

1:14:57 > 1:15:03It's almost cubist in its execution.

1:15:03 > 1:15:07I think it's a great shame ladies don't wear hats like this any more.

1:15:07 > 1:15:09Or gentlemen, really.

1:15:15 > 1:15:17This lovely cheekbone.

1:15:20 > 1:15:22It's caught by the light.

1:15:37 > 1:15:40The modernist movement would lead to

1:15:40 > 1:15:43dramatic new artistic styles across Europe.

1:15:45 > 1:15:48Artists were producing work unlike anything seen before.

1:15:53 > 1:15:56But in Scotland, the artists remained fascinated

1:15:56 > 1:15:59with painting people, as they'd always been.

1:16:00 > 1:16:02The children living in Glasgow's slums

1:16:02 > 1:16:04featured in Joan Eardley's work.

1:16:06 > 1:16:09While many of John Bellany's paintings

1:16:09 > 1:16:12drew on the east coast fishing community where he grew up.

1:16:14 > 1:16:16When Bellany was studying at Edinburgh College of Art,

1:16:16 > 1:16:19he met John Byrne - another artist

1:16:19 > 1:16:22who was drawn to painting the human form.

1:16:25 > 1:16:28Here was someone who was not only a painter,

1:16:28 > 1:16:31but would also go on to write highly influential plays

1:16:31 > 1:16:33that would formulate the way

1:16:33 > 1:16:36modern Scotland was beginning to see itself.

1:16:36 > 1:16:41He was among a group of popular revolutionaries who injected humour,

1:16:41 > 1:16:45style and rock'n'roll into the drab world of '70s Scottish culture.

1:16:47 > 1:16:48You look great.

1:16:48 > 1:16:50Byrne believes that for artists,

1:16:50 > 1:16:53the human form has a special significance.

1:16:56 > 1:17:00You've chosen time and time again to return

1:17:00 > 1:17:04to the face and to the portrait. What is it about the...?

1:17:04 > 1:17:07Well, it's... I mean, every time it's about people,

1:17:07 > 1:17:09about the whole of life, the whole of your...

1:17:09 > 1:17:14We are people who take a particular form. Er...

1:17:14 > 1:17:16And I know it's, er...

1:17:18 > 1:17:22..was or is more admired that you do something else,

1:17:22 > 1:17:27because a painting is itself, it doesnae need to depict anything.

1:17:27 > 1:17:31Give us peace. We're people who think and dream

1:17:31 > 1:17:35and work and do things, and engage with other people.

1:17:35 > 1:17:37A photograph doesnae do it.

1:17:37 > 1:17:39- Yes.- A painting does it.

1:17:39 > 1:17:43It's a shocking thing to see a great painting of a human being.

1:17:43 > 1:17:45It's really, really shocking.

1:17:45 > 1:17:48Cos there's much more to it than just a likeness,

1:17:48 > 1:17:50or what you see on the canvas.

1:17:52 > 1:17:56And how do you feel about, for instance, that, you know,

1:17:56 > 1:17:58the hugely celebrated Henry Raeburn

1:17:58 > 1:18:00or Allan Ramsay...?

1:18:00 > 1:18:02Er...

1:18:02 > 1:18:06I rate Allan Ramsay very, very highly indeed.

1:18:06 > 1:18:09I love Ramsay's portraits. And Raeburn is wonderful.

1:18:09 > 1:18:11They were slightly...

1:18:11 > 1:18:15You always notice, the nostrils are always red in Raeburn's...

1:18:15 > 1:18:16LAUGHTER

1:18:16 > 1:18:18Absolutely. Aye, he's got a formula.

1:18:20 > 1:18:23That's such a painter thing to do, is to spot immediately...

1:18:23 > 1:18:25I'll be looking at that all the time.

1:18:25 > 1:18:27But Allan Ramsay is just wonderful.

1:18:27 > 1:18:32But given that you clearly have this enormous gift for drawing,

1:18:32 > 1:18:36how do you get it to the level that you have it at?

1:18:36 > 1:18:38Ah, but you do it every day anyway.

1:18:38 > 1:18:43And, er... Oh, God.

1:18:43 > 1:18:45To draw something is to understand it.

1:18:45 > 1:18:49When you do a portrait you try and get the whole person,

1:18:49 > 1:18:52and their mind, and their brain, and their dreams,

1:18:52 > 1:18:55and all their...as well as just their physical appearance.

1:18:55 > 1:18:59You try and embody that. And then something magical happens.

1:18:59 > 1:19:00Mmm.

1:19:02 > 1:19:05When John Byrne was a student in the early '60s,

1:19:05 > 1:19:07he became friends with another young figurative painter

1:19:07 > 1:19:10who, like Byrne, would be an inspiration

1:19:10 > 1:19:14to the next generation of Scottish artists.

1:19:14 > 1:19:18Sandy Moffat was a hugely influential artist and tutor

1:19:18 > 1:19:22who arrived at Glasgow School of Art when I was in my third year.

1:19:22 > 1:19:25You, erm, came to Glasgow School of Art

1:19:25 > 1:19:30in the year that, er, our friend Mrs Thatcher came to power.

1:19:30 > 1:19:33Er, and I just wondered if you had any feelings

1:19:33 > 1:19:35about her influence on art?

1:19:35 > 1:19:38Well, I think that was a defining moment for Scottish art,

1:19:38 > 1:19:40for Scottish culture, in a sense.

1:19:41 > 1:19:45- We were being ruled by a party in London, that...- Yeah.

1:19:45 > 1:19:47..I think none of us had even voted for.

1:19:47 > 1:19:50- Yes.- One single Scottish Tory MP.

1:19:50 > 1:19:56So I think this was something which did affect artists,

1:19:56 > 1:20:01really quite deeply. I mean, writers, musicians, everyone.

1:20:01 > 1:20:04So in many ways, Thatcher was actually a beneficial figure

1:20:04 > 1:20:06for Scottish art and artists.

1:20:06 > 1:20:09Yes, because she provided this well of anger.

1:20:09 > 1:20:11Absolutely. We had to react.

1:20:11 > 1:20:14We couldn't just sit around on the fence any more.

1:20:14 > 1:20:16- No.- Something had to be done.- Yeah.

1:20:19 > 1:20:20In the face of Thatcherism.

1:20:20 > 1:20:23something of a cultural renaissance emerged in Scotland.

1:20:25 > 1:20:28For a group of Sandy Moffat's students,

1:20:28 > 1:20:30it was an extraordinarily creative time.

1:20:30 > 1:20:32Steven Campbell, Peter Howson,

1:20:32 > 1:20:36Adrian Wiszniewski and Ken Currie, amongst others,

1:20:36 > 1:20:38were taking the Scottish tradition

1:20:38 > 1:20:40of painting portraits and people to a new level.

1:20:42 > 1:20:47So Moffat set up New Image Glasgow, to showcase their work.

1:20:49 > 1:20:53The New Image Glasgow show was put together in a matter of weeks.

1:20:53 > 1:20:56The break was that the show was taking place

1:20:56 > 1:20:58at the same time as the Edinburgh Festival.

1:20:58 > 1:21:01So all the London critics came over and they were all knocked out!

1:21:01 > 1:21:03Waldemar Januszczak of the Guardian said,

1:21:03 > 1:21:06"This is the greatest show, this is what...

1:21:06 > 1:21:09"This has completely blown away everything that's happening in London."

1:21:09 > 1:21:12Yeah. Is there a moment when you have a first inkling

1:21:12 > 1:21:14that there's something special going on?

1:21:14 > 1:21:17When I first came across Howson, for example,

1:21:17 > 1:21:20you could see that it was, kind of, different.

1:21:20 > 1:21:22But he was a fantastic student.

1:21:22 > 1:21:25I mean, he had huge talent, incredible talent.

1:21:25 > 1:21:28I mean, Currie was painting paintings in his third year that,

1:21:28 > 1:21:32erm, well, quite frankly, they were mature masterpieces.

1:21:32 > 1:21:36And what Campbell was doing was, nobody had seen the likes of that.

1:21:36 > 1:21:38And such labour.

1:21:38 > 1:21:41I mean, the work that these guys put in...

1:21:41 > 1:21:47None of them ever neglected this idea of painting as a craft.

1:21:47 > 1:21:51And the only way you can deal with that is putting in 12 hours a day.

1:21:51 > 1:21:54Whatever it is you do with a pencil, or a paint brush,

1:21:54 > 1:21:58you've got to go over it again and again, as it were.

1:21:58 > 1:22:00It's got to be mastered.

1:22:00 > 1:22:03And then after that, then you can begin to say things, as it were.

1:22:03 > 1:22:07If I imparted anything at all to the young Peter Howson,

1:22:07 > 1:22:11or the young Stephen Campbell or the young Ken Currie,

1:22:11 > 1:22:13it was along those lines.

1:22:13 > 1:22:18That, in a way, Scottish art had to raise the bar.

1:22:18 > 1:22:20They were the ones that could do this.

1:22:20 > 1:22:23But they had to set themselves

1:22:23 > 1:22:26against the very best from elsewhere.

1:22:26 > 1:22:30Not just in the present, but they had to look at the past as well.

1:22:31 > 1:22:33The New Glasgow Boys, as they came to be known,

1:22:33 > 1:22:37shifted the centre of Britain's art scene away from London.

1:22:39 > 1:22:42The late Stephen Campbell, with his dream-like symbolism,

1:22:42 > 1:22:43took America by storm.

1:22:48 > 1:22:51Peter Howson took his inspiration from Glasgow -

1:22:51 > 1:22:54in particular, the city's tough underbelly,

1:22:54 > 1:22:58from where he fashioned a cast of bruised and shattered heroes.

1:22:58 > 1:23:02I first met Peter at art school, from where he'd vanished,

1:23:02 > 1:23:05only to return and astound us with the news

1:23:05 > 1:23:07that he'd been in the army.

1:23:07 > 1:23:11We didn't realise it then, but this was a hint of the drama

1:23:11 > 1:23:13that would follow him throughout his career.

1:23:13 > 1:23:16I caught up with him at his Glasgow studio.

1:23:16 > 1:23:19I was hoping to introduce...

1:23:22 > 1:23:25..fire down here, you know.

1:23:25 > 1:23:27Er, possibly a bit of fire there.

1:23:27 > 1:23:30Or to do with, erm...

1:23:33 > 1:23:35..Dante's red...

1:23:37 > 1:23:41The great thing about painting is, if you make mistakes, with oil,

1:23:41 > 1:23:45like, say you smudge something, then...

1:23:45 > 1:23:47You can't do that with any other medium.

1:23:47 > 1:23:51You can go over it. The beauty of oil paint is that it lives and breathes.

1:23:51 > 1:23:55But it's amazing even the difference that that's made, I mean, to that...

1:23:55 > 1:23:57Well, it just adds a bit of warmth.

1:24:00 > 1:24:06Put in a touch of...that will catch the light in the fire.

1:24:06 > 1:24:09You know, that's coming from here. And then...

1:24:11 > 1:24:16I'm interested to know, from a technical point of view...

1:24:17 > 1:24:22..with this picture, how much do you know where you're going with this?

1:24:22 > 1:24:26It can go in any direction that I feel led to go.

1:24:26 > 1:24:29At the moment, that...

1:24:29 > 1:24:31I mean, the other... A few month...

1:24:31 > 1:24:33- This has been on the go for quite a long time.- Ah-ha.

1:24:33 > 1:24:35That has suddenly appeared,

1:24:35 > 1:24:37and I don't even know what that is at the moment.

1:24:37 > 1:24:39So that wasn't in the original concept.

1:24:39 > 1:24:41- No.- And it may not be there in the end?

1:24:41 > 1:24:43It might not be in the end.

1:24:43 > 1:24:46It's quite a dangerous place,

1:24:46 > 1:24:48this place that you paint?

1:24:48 > 1:24:50No, not for me. I like it in there!

1:24:50 > 1:24:53I like... The idea of...

1:24:53 > 1:24:56..of going in and out of these paintings

1:24:56 > 1:24:57is what appeals to me, really.

1:24:59 > 1:25:05This skyline that we see here is so utterly Glaswegian.

1:25:05 > 1:25:12Er, and I just wonder how much Glasgow is a part of your work?

1:25:12 > 1:25:15Oh, yeah, it's a massive part of my work, really.

1:25:15 > 1:25:18It's the only place I could really ever work in is Glasgow.

1:25:18 > 1:25:21You seem to take it and expand it,

1:25:21 > 1:25:24and turn it into a biblical, kind of, epic sort of place?

1:25:24 > 1:25:26That's the only way of doing it.

1:25:26 > 1:25:30That's the only way of doing it, Peter. That's the kind of whole...

1:25:30 > 1:25:31You can't just...

1:25:31 > 1:25:35What I wanted to do with Glasgow is turn it into a mythical place,

1:25:35 > 1:25:40like a kind of Blake-ian place, where you would get streetlamps and cars,

1:25:40 > 1:25:42and also dragons and monsters.

1:25:42 > 1:25:45The thing about the Glasgow Group, the Glasgow Boys,

1:25:45 > 1:25:48whatever you want to call us - it wasn't a kind of shallow thing.

1:25:48 > 1:25:52This was a legitimate movement.

1:25:52 > 1:25:53- Yes.- What is Scotland really like?

1:25:53 > 1:25:58You know, what is it like to live in Glasgow? What's Scotland really like?

1:25:58 > 1:26:02How can we bring in the whole world into this, but still make it Glasgow?

1:26:02 > 1:26:06I... Obviously there was elements that I recognised,

1:26:06 > 1:26:08because I come from Glasgow.

1:26:08 > 1:26:11But I thought the work was totally universal.

1:26:11 > 1:26:14And that was the exciting, kind of dazzling thing,

1:26:14 > 1:26:17was to see aspects of your own culture,

1:26:17 > 1:26:22that you were familiar with, exploding into this world

1:26:22 > 1:26:26of visions and painting, erm, that was new.

1:26:26 > 1:26:29Mmm. I know. It was amazing. It was a great feeling.

1:26:29 > 1:26:31It was a great feeling.

1:26:31 > 1:26:34Well done, that was great.

1:26:34 > 1:26:36It was great. Very good.

1:26:36 > 1:26:38I hope I haven't got paint on you now. Let me just...

1:26:38 > 1:26:42This is, er... I don't think the BBC will pay my dry-cleaning bill!

1:26:42 > 1:26:43Maybe I can sell it!

1:26:43 > 1:26:44LAUGHTER

1:26:44 > 1:26:46The generation of artists

1:26:46 > 1:26:49that followed the painterly New Glasgow Boys

1:26:49 > 1:26:52have been experimenting with new forms of media.

1:26:55 > 1:26:58They've moved beyond the formal portraiture of Ramsay and Raeburn,

1:26:58 > 1:27:01but the tradition those great painters established

1:27:01 > 1:27:03still influences Scottish artists.

1:27:05 > 1:27:101996 Turner Prize winner, Douglas Gordon, created a self-portrait

1:27:10 > 1:27:13that plays on the image of four famous faces.

1:27:15 > 1:27:18And Turner nominee, Christine Borland's work

1:27:18 > 1:27:20investigates issues of identity.

1:27:24 > 1:27:29Glasgow-based artist, Roddy Buchanan uses video to create portraits

1:27:29 > 1:27:32of Scottish communities and working class life.

1:27:33 > 1:27:36It's perhaps too soon to know if the artists who are important today

1:27:36 > 1:27:40will be significant to future generations.

1:27:40 > 1:27:44But Buchanan's work shows that in Scottish contemporary art,

1:27:44 > 1:27:47portraits and people are still a central theme.

1:28:01 > 1:28:03For me, it's been a delight

1:28:03 > 1:28:07to spend time with some of Scotland's most exciting artists

1:28:07 > 1:28:09and with these remarkable works.

1:28:09 > 1:28:12It's made me think about my own love of portraiture.

1:28:12 > 1:28:15It seems to me that the gift of the artist

1:28:15 > 1:28:18is to capture something of the person

1:28:18 > 1:28:20that cannot be found in words,

1:28:20 > 1:28:23and can only be told in the picture.

1:28:23 > 1:28:25And it's in the pictures

1:28:25 > 1:28:29that Scotland's people and history are with us still.

1:28:50 > 1:28:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

1:28:52 > 1:28:55E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk