0:00:12 > 0:00:15On a blustery day in 1883,
0:00:15 > 0:00:19Scotland's most eminent landscape painter stood,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22watching the tide turning off the west coast.
0:00:24 > 0:00:29William McTaggart had captured these views many times before.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35But on this occasion, he began to envisage
0:00:35 > 0:00:37a very different kind of canvas.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48I've painted seascapes on the west coast of Scotland all my life,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51and I can just imagine, as the sky darkens
0:00:51 > 0:00:53and the wind begins to get up,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57how McTaggart becomes more and more excited.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Alone on the beach, surrounded by the elements,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04he conjures up a new image of Scotland,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08the image of a nation standing on the brink of enormous change.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20McTaggart called his painting The Storm.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24It captured not just the beauty but the restlessness,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27the vulnerability and the troubled spirit of Scotland.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35This was a time when a new generation
0:01:35 > 0:01:37of Scottish artists emerged,
0:01:37 > 0:01:39who rejected tradition.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41They were bohemian, they were rebellious
0:01:41 > 0:01:44and they were in search of a new way of seeing,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48a new way of creating art that would reflect the modern age.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55The last decades of the 19th century were a tempestuous period
0:01:55 > 0:01:57in the history of Scottish art.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03A time when the dual forces of tradition
0:02:03 > 0:02:06and reinvention wrestled for artistic supremacy.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12Scotland's artists, refusing to be shackled by their past,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15travelled far and wide in search of inspiration...
0:02:21 > 0:02:25..and dazzled us with a riot of colour, movement and light.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32Over four blistering decades,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35they would forge a modern art for a modern Scotland.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41An art that would challenge history.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48An art that would question conventions.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57An art that would burn fast and fearsome
0:02:57 > 0:03:01before it was consumed in the fire of the First World War.
0:03:25 > 0:03:29Glasgow. In the 1880s, this was the engine room of empire.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31A place teeming with life.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37An industrial boom town where commercial success
0:03:37 > 0:03:41would soon fuel a new artistic awakening.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Glasgow's merchants and industrialists
0:03:51 > 0:03:54were self-made men with money to burn.
0:03:54 > 0:03:59These tycoons, who'd made their fortunes in the cotton, tobacco
0:03:59 > 0:04:01and ship-building trades, well, for them,
0:04:01 > 0:04:05collecting art was a new way to launder their identity,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08to clean the muck from out under their fingernails.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11And because they weren't from aristocratic stock
0:04:11 > 0:04:15they didn't have huge inherited collections of art,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18so the walls of their spanking new Victorian palazzos
0:04:18 > 0:04:20looked decidedly blank.
0:04:20 > 0:04:24It was a very good time to be an artist in Scotland.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32It was against this backdrop
0:04:32 > 0:04:35that a dynamic group of Glasgow-based artists emerged,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39keen to breathe new life into Scottish art.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43This loose-knit band of kindred spirits
0:04:43 > 0:04:46would become known as the Glasgow Boys.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52You can see some of the key players here,
0:04:52 > 0:04:54decked out as great Masters of the past
0:04:54 > 0:04:57at the Glasgow Art Club's costume ball.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01A sign, perhaps, of their self-confidence and intent.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10But proposing new ways of painting in Scotland
0:05:10 > 0:05:12was going to be a hard sell.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20This was the highly popular,
0:05:20 > 0:05:23and officially sanctioned, image of Scotland
0:05:23 > 0:05:25that the Glasgow Boys were up against.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28These kind of Highland panoramas
0:05:28 > 0:05:31had become a globally recognised trademark.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35Think Scotland, think the big country, the rutting wildlife,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38and a veil of mist, turned tobacco colour
0:05:38 > 0:05:41by layers of gloopy varnish.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44So why change such a winning formula?
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Well, the point was that, on the Continent,
0:05:47 > 0:05:51artists had begun to move away from this kind of bombastic romanticism,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55they were less interested in making a monument out of the landscape
0:05:55 > 0:05:58and more intrigued by a sense of spontaneity, intimacy,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01a dancing glance of sunlight.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05The art of Scotland was beginning to look a little bit out of date,
0:06:05 > 0:06:10old-fashioned. Artists were going to need to change with the times.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18The young James Guthrie would emerge as one of the pioneers
0:06:18 > 0:06:20of the Glasgow group.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23He was determined that their paintings would capture
0:06:23 > 0:06:26an authentic Scotland, its landscape,
0:06:26 > 0:06:30its people, its light.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42Guthrie struck out into the rolling lowlands in search of inspiration.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52He wasn't after dramatic views,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55he sought out intimate scenes,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58the mundane reality of everyday rural life.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06In its day, painting an objective, unsentimental portrait
0:07:06 > 0:07:09of a rustic labourer was seen as radical.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12Giving a farmer the air of dignity,
0:07:12 > 0:07:16making a painting of him that showed the respect and commitment
0:07:16 > 0:07:20that you might when doing a portrait of a king or an aristocrat.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23Well, in Britain at least, that was still seen
0:07:23 > 0:07:28as a concept as controversial as today's pickled shark.
0:07:28 > 0:07:29It was a challenge to convention.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39To genuinely reflect rural reality,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Guthrie embedded himself within a village community.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48A very progressive thing for a British artist to do at the time.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52During the 1880s,
0:07:52 > 0:07:56Cockburnspath on the Berwickshire coast became his home from home.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03Other members of the Glasgow group joined him during the summer months.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11The unsuspecting village soon became a lively artist's colony,
0:08:11 > 0:08:14with an artist lodger in almost every house.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25In painting after painting, the boys immortalise the villagers on canvas.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Theirs is the Scottish landscape through a portrait lens,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34rather than a wide-angle.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41And this unposed authenticity could only be achieved
0:08:41 > 0:08:46by getting out of the studio and sketching outdoors, from life.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00The Boys' enthusiasm for plein air painting coincided with
0:09:00 > 0:09:02new technological developments.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Small tubes of paint and collapsible easels made working outside
0:09:07 > 0:09:09more practical than it had ever been before.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Allowing the Boys to carefully emulate
0:09:14 > 0:09:17the cool tones of the elusive Scottish sunshine.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22There's a great pleasure in painting outdoors because
0:09:22 > 0:09:24when you're no longer in the studio,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26you get affected by lots of other things
0:09:26 > 0:09:29that are happening around you so...
0:09:29 > 0:09:33this evening the light is... is changing all the time.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36It's very soft but there are little, little moments
0:09:36 > 0:09:38where it comes through the cloud
0:09:38 > 0:09:40and it highlights parts of the landscape.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42You can't imagine any of that.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44You can't imagine the changes
0:09:44 > 0:09:46that come across the landscape so suddenly.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Painting outdoors was already popular in France.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58But, as Guthrie's sketch shows,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02in the changeable Scottish weather it demanded considerable dedication.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10When winter set in and the other Glasgow Boys returned to the warmth
0:10:10 > 0:10:15of their city studios, Guthrie doggedly stayed on in Cockburnspath.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21One year he really struggled with a depiction of fieldworkers
0:10:21 > 0:10:25sheltering from the rain and he got so frustrated
0:10:25 > 0:10:28with this composition that he put his foot right through the canvas.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32But he persevered, he pushed through it.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35And, you know, painting's not always a picnic,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39to get to the best paintings you've got to fight for them.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41He certainly understood that.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Guthrie and the Glasgow Boys were turning their back
0:10:50 > 0:10:53on many of the conventions in Scottish art.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58This boldness was one of the reasons Sandy Moffat was drawn to
0:10:58 > 0:11:00their work as a young student artist.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05For him, they set the benchmark
0:11:05 > 0:11:08against which his generation measured themselves.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12Sometimes when you look at these paintings from a 21st century
0:11:12 > 0:11:13point of view they really,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16they don't look that radical - but they were.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19It's a complete break from everything the Victorians preached,
0:11:19 > 0:11:21in a sense, as good art.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23The Boys broke with that totally.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25It was a kind of gesture towards
0:11:25 > 0:11:29a more open and democratic way of painting.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33They're saying, "We're not snooty people, you know,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36"hovering around the Royal Academy at that stage,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39"we're saying we're identifying with farm labourers,
0:11:39 > 0:11:41"we're identifying with a completely different way of,
0:11:41 > 0:11:43"with a different strata in society."
0:11:43 > 0:11:46What do you think that, for example, an artist like Guthrie,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49coming here to the landscape of south-eastern Scotland,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51what did he want to say by being here?
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Well, it seems that he definitely wanted to say something about
0:11:54 > 0:12:00Scotland and the way that the rural communities existed and worked.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03For Guthrie, the subject matter
0:12:03 > 0:12:06and the way of painting that subject matter went hand-in-hand.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08Here, it's about testing out these ideas
0:12:08 > 0:12:09you have of what paint might do,
0:12:09 > 0:12:12applied in this way to this particular subject.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16The fact he did that changes the whole course of Scottish painting,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18literally overnight.
0:12:20 > 0:12:24While the Royal Academy in London celebrated titillating pastiches
0:12:24 > 0:12:26of classical mythology,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29James Guthrie was painting life as he found it,
0:12:29 > 0:12:33and wiping the dirt of the real world from his boots.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42It was during one of these hikes that Guthrie stumbled across
0:12:42 > 0:12:46a young farm worker harvesting cabbages.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50It's the moment when, for me,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53one of the greatest paintings by any of the Glasgow Boys was conceived.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01This is no romanticised image
0:13:01 > 0:13:04or stock character from central casting.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Guthrie captures a dignity and an intensity
0:13:10 > 0:13:13that resonates across the centuries.
0:13:18 > 0:13:23No matter how many times I encounter the Hind's Daughter,
0:13:23 > 0:13:28I always find that it's such an immediate and compelling image
0:13:28 > 0:13:32that it feels like the first encounter ever.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37You never look as closely at a painting
0:13:37 > 0:13:40as you do when you're sketching from it.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43It's not about copying,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47it's about immersing yourself in the artist's technique.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52It's an extraordinary feat of painting,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55and you can see across this whole canvas,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59Guthrie exploiting some of those important Glasgow Boys'
0:13:59 > 0:14:05stylistic signatures, particularly his use of a square-headed brush,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08he's applying the paint in broad strokes,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11he's often emphasising it with a palette knife,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15which gives the whole image a real thickness
0:14:15 > 0:14:17because it's been worked on layer upon layer.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22And yet, with the face of this young girl, he's changed styles,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26his painted it smoothly, cleanly and subtly,
0:14:26 > 0:14:31so that her presence emerges out of all this heavily laden brushwork
0:14:31 > 0:14:36and it meets you with an extraordinarily personal effect.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40This is totally unsentimental.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43You really get the sense that you are encountering life
0:14:43 > 0:14:46as it was face-to-face.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55The Hind's Daughter was a powerful new kind of Scottish painting,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59one that reflected the growing influence of continental ideas.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06In France, painters like Jules Bastien-Lepage
0:15:06 > 0:15:08had achieved celebrity
0:15:08 > 0:15:12by capturing rural life with an almost photographic realism.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20So, while Guthrie remained in Scotland,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24another section of the Glasgow group travelled across the Channel,
0:15:24 > 0:15:26hoping to uncover the secrets of
0:15:26 > 0:15:30this new naturalistic style at its source.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38The leader of the pack was John Lavery,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41who discovered his talent for painting while working
0:15:41 > 0:15:45as a retoucher in a Glasgow photographer's studio.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50When Lavery arrived in Grez-sur-Loing,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53a sleepy village 50 miles south of Paris,
0:15:53 > 0:15:57he stepped into an international artists' colony,
0:15:57 > 0:16:02full of bohemian types, desperate to get their taste of Lepage country.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09The locals must have eyed them sagely.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11"They won't last long", they'd have thought.
0:16:11 > 0:16:13And many of them didn't.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18After their summer of rustic fun, most of them returned home
0:16:18 > 0:16:23where parents, kindly but firmly, told them to get a proper job!
0:16:25 > 0:16:28But Lavery was here to take it seriously.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34He set up his easel on the river bank
0:16:34 > 0:16:38and began a work that would make his name at home and abroad.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49Although some of the scenery does feel a bit familiar,
0:16:49 > 0:16:53maybe you'd stumble across something like this near Cockburnspath.
0:16:53 > 0:16:58For Lavery, the light, the smells, the sound of those
0:16:58 > 0:17:03French voices across the river would have felt still very exotic.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07And it drove him, I think, to take some chances, to create some
0:17:07 > 0:17:09new paintings that he perhaps
0:17:09 > 0:17:12would never have been moved to do in Scotland.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19PIANO MUSIC
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Here, in Grez, Lavery's painting would be transformed.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27Touched by French Impressionism,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30he developed a broader, looser style.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36And, like a roving reporter, he was also experimenting with
0:17:36 > 0:17:39daring photographic composition and depth of field.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48The bridge at Grez was a popular subject.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52It had been painted numerous times before.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56But no-one would capture it quite like Lavery.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Perhaps he was inspired by a chance encounter with his hero,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05Bastien-Lepage, who'd bestowed
0:18:05 > 0:18:06a few words of advice.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11"Select a person", said Lepage sagely.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14"Watch him and then note down everything you can remember.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16"Never look twice."
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Lavery took his words to heart.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30His is a scene caught in the blink of an eye on a lazy afternoon.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35A rower blows a kiss to his sweetheart
0:18:35 > 0:18:37and slips by in a shimmer of heat.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42There for a fleeting moment and then gone.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47It was like nothing Lavery had ever painted before.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55France had stretched Lavery, introduced him
0:18:55 > 0:18:59to new ways of looking at life and capturing it on canvas.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05And when, after two formative summers, Lavery returned
0:19:05 > 0:19:09to Scotland, the taste of France lingered on in his painting.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Lavery was determined to announce his return
0:19:21 > 0:19:24to the Scottish arts scene with a bit of a fanfare.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31He began a series of studies for what he hoped would be a dynamic
0:19:31 > 0:19:35new canvas inspired by the newly-invented sport of lawn tennis.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44Lavery was always a bit of an artist entrepreneur
0:19:44 > 0:19:48and he had a hunch that all those wealthy Scottish collectors
0:19:48 > 0:19:54with their fat wallets would be more seduced, more lured, into buying
0:19:54 > 0:19:56paintings of themselves at play
0:19:56 > 0:19:59than any number of mud-spattered peasants.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Lavery was taking on a very modern theme,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08the middle-class at play, and working it up on a scale
0:20:08 > 0:20:11normally reserved for weighty, historical subjects.
0:20:14 > 0:20:16It was a bold move.
0:20:18 > 0:20:20But Lavery was playing a clever game.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26The Tennis Party is a seductive painting.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33It invites you to walk through the open gate and join the company.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38And who wouldn't want to be introduced into this world?
0:20:40 > 0:20:44A place gilded in sunlight, blessed with ease.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49The Tennis Party would become the quintessential image
0:20:49 > 0:20:54of late 19th-century middle-class Scottish life
0:20:54 > 0:20:57and it made Lavery's name as a society painter.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06The mid-1880s marked a coming of age, not just for Lavery,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09but the whole Glasgow group.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12And it coincided with a high point for the city, too.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20During the International Exhibition of 1888,
0:21:20 > 0:21:24the world came to Glasgow, which was now hailed as a great centre of art.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33The Boys' work was showcased to an international audience.
0:21:36 > 0:21:37They were being talked about.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40They secured group shows in Europe and America.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44They had arrived!
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Scottish art had been forced to take along, hard look at itself.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54at the people it chose to depict,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57and the landscape it chose to identify with.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04The Glasgow Boys were only gentle radicals, but there was one artist
0:22:04 > 0:22:08on the fringes of the group whose ambition reached even further.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15He is, in my view, one of the great unsung heroes of Scottish art.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19His name is Arthur Melville.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Melville was an artist buccaneer.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31A man who took as many risks in his paintings
0:22:31 > 0:22:34as he did on his far-flung adventures.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44MUSIC: The Seven Seas by Richard Harvey
0:22:46 > 0:22:50In the 1880s, he embarked on a treacherous two-year voyage
0:22:50 > 0:22:52across the Middle East,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55taking in Cairo, Karachi and Baghdad.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Melville thought that he was journeying into the Arabian nights,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04but, in actual fact, he found his own heart of darkness.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09On his journey, he was pursued by bandits,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12robbed and even arrested as a spy.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19But the greatest adventure of his life lay in exploring the magic
0:23:19 > 0:23:21and wonder of watercolour.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30MUSIC: Waterfalls by Dominic Johnson
0:23:34 > 0:23:38During his travels, Melville developed a unique style
0:23:38 > 0:23:40that the critics called "blottesque".
0:23:47 > 0:23:51No other Victorian watercolourist could rival the simple,
0:23:51 > 0:23:54almost abstract power of these paintings.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03In the dazzling light of the Mediterranean,
0:24:03 > 0:24:07Melville perfected the challenging wet-on-wet technique,
0:24:07 > 0:24:10which means using wet paint on wet paper.
0:24:12 > 0:24:17It's difficult because you have to work very fast and instinctively.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22Most amateur watercolour artists always try
0:24:22 > 0:24:25and keep control of their image.
0:24:25 > 0:24:28They work with very small brushes and they try
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and keep the whole image dry because once you've lost control
0:24:31 > 0:24:34of watercolour painting, that's it, it's gone.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39You have to start again. Melville, however, was very brave.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42He would use big, thick brushes, loaded with water and pigment
0:24:42 > 0:24:47and he would splash them across the page from a very early point.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Now, watercolour images increasingly become more detailed,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56but Melville wasn't really pursuing precision.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59He wanted to capture light, atmosphere, mood.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03He'd often soak the whole page in water so that
0:25:03 > 0:25:05when he touched the surface of it with his brush
0:25:05 > 0:25:09the pigment would be absorbed in a huge cloud of fresh colour.
0:25:09 > 0:25:12It's like when you drop a spot of ink onto blotting paper.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17He then might attack the page with a sponge
0:25:17 > 0:25:20and he'd pull off some of the colour, using it like an eraser,
0:25:20 > 0:25:25and when all of that had died down, dried down, he'd only then begin
0:25:25 > 0:25:29to introduce the essential elements of detail with a darker colour.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38The results were mind-blowing.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44Strong, vibrant, sensual, exciting.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49This was a new kind of Scottish art, pushing watercolour to its limits.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56ACCORDION PLAYS
0:25:59 > 0:26:03But what I find most astounding is the direction that Melville
0:26:03 > 0:26:07took his art in Paris in 1889.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Paris was the 19th-century world capital of art.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17Nowhere else compared.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23And this was the year of the Exposition Universelle,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28a once-in-a-decade opportunity to see the very best contemporary art.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34In a series of quite spectacular exhibitions, Melville was treated to
0:26:34 > 0:26:36a roll call of everyone
0:26:36 > 0:26:39who was anyone in the contemporary art world.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43Monet, Cezanne, Rodin, Paul Serusier, Emile Bernard,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45Paul Gaugin,
0:26:45 > 0:26:47all exhibiting in the same place at the same time.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50Surely that could not fail to impress?
0:26:57 > 0:27:00This was painting that wasn't about realism any more.
0:27:06 > 0:27:08In fact, it was about the very opposite.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15It was about making the world around you appear a little bit unreal.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30Heady with this intoxicating display of revolutionary art,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Melville headed for the newly-opened Moulin Rouge,
0:27:33 > 0:27:35the hottest nightspot in town.
0:27:37 > 0:27:38It would be a revelation.
0:27:40 > 0:27:42APPLAUSE AND WHISTLING
0:27:48 > 0:27:51During the show, Melville did not stop sketching.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58His hand danced across the page, but the images that emerged
0:27:58 > 0:28:01seemed completely unrelated to the performance.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06They were unreal.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08Surreal.
0:28:08 > 0:28:13Melville was unleashing colour in a new and boldly thrilling way.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:28:27 > 0:28:30For me, Melville's Moulin Rouge studies are some of the most
0:28:30 > 0:28:33exciting gems ever produced by a Scottish artist.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39These are pages from Melville's sketchbook
0:28:39 > 0:28:42and here you've got a whole procession of cancan girls which,
0:28:42 > 0:28:44if you look at it right,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47you can see emerging out of the whole puddle of watercolour.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51And he hasn't tried to describe it precisely,
0:28:51 > 0:28:55he's simply let the dribbles of his paint define the standing legs
0:28:55 > 0:28:57of the girls which allow you,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59through all this maelstrom of brushwork,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02to imagine the other legs kicking up in the air.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05There's even the hand splodged down at the bottom left-hand corner
0:29:05 > 0:29:08of one of the onlookers shrieking with delight.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13So, in these watercolours, we've got Melville,
0:29:13 > 0:29:15an artist of the 19th century,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18who isn't dictating to us what we're seeing.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21He's allowing your imagination to run riot.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25That's expressed most particularly in this other watercolour, I think.
0:29:28 > 0:29:30Who knows what's happening here?
0:29:30 > 0:29:33And if you spin the page round and round,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35it doesn't make any more sense.
0:29:35 > 0:29:40But what I can see is that, as he's been slapping on these
0:29:40 > 0:29:44fantastic, pure colours onto the paper, he's been holding the page up
0:29:44 > 0:29:46one way first so that the paint dribbles down the edge.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50He has then decided to hold the page another way as he's explored
0:29:50 > 0:29:53this yellow tone and the paint has dribbled this way.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Then he's applied onto an increasingly wet piece of paper,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00another tone and he's dribbled this fantastic ultramarine blue
0:30:00 > 0:30:02down the middle.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04You can see where the paint has been so wet,
0:30:04 > 0:30:06it's mixed together into the green.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09He is turning the page round and round
0:30:09 > 0:30:12and you can hear the swirling cancan in the background.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Melville was an artist ahead of his time.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23His premature death from typhoid fever aged just 49
0:30:23 > 0:30:26cut short a brilliant career.
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Who knows what he could have gone on to achieve.
0:30:37 > 0:30:41While Melville's art was steeped in adventure and exoticism,
0:30:41 > 0:30:45one of the most successful artists of this generation remained
0:30:45 > 0:30:48resolutely at home,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51capturing his native land with an empathy
0:30:51 > 0:30:53and understanding that remains unrivalled.
0:31:01 > 0:31:03William McTaggart was a man apart.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10He was born into a Gaelic-speaking fishing community
0:31:10 > 0:31:14in Kintyre on Scotland's remote west coast.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22His singular vision for Scottish art
0:31:22 > 0:31:24was inspired by the landscape of his childhood.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29One shaped by the constant exchange
0:31:29 > 0:31:32between rugged shore and raging tide.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42William McTaggart had grown up surrounded by fishermen
0:31:42 > 0:31:45so he really understood the rhythms of the sea.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49He understood its power to sustain life, but also to take it away,
0:31:49 > 0:31:54because his own son had died in a fishing accident aged only 21.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58So, when McTaggart paints such places, he's actually describing
0:31:58 > 0:32:01a landscape that he has been immersed in all of his life.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04He's portraying his own people.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08MUSIC: Distant Lands by Richard Harvey
0:32:14 > 0:32:18McTaggart once said, "It's the heart that's the thing."
0:32:19 > 0:32:21His painting is driven by emotion...
0:32:24 > 0:32:26..a passion for spontaneous brushwork
0:32:26 > 0:32:29and the profound affection for his subject.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34But this landscape was experiencing one of
0:32:34 > 0:32:37the greatest upheavals in Scottish history.
0:32:37 > 0:32:38The Highland Clearances.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44As a boy, William McTaggart had watched hundreds
0:32:44 > 0:32:47of homeless Highlanders who'd been turfed off their land
0:32:47 > 0:32:48in order to make way for sheep,
0:32:48 > 0:32:51queueing on the quayside at Campbeltown.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54They were waiting for the ships that were going to take them
0:32:54 > 0:32:56to a new life in the Americas.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04It was an image William McTaggart would never forget.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14The Clearances decimated the Gaelic-speaking population,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16threatening the language, culture
0:33:16 > 0:33:18and history that McTaggart had inherited.
0:33:24 > 0:33:29In the 1890s, the memories he had been harbouring all his life
0:33:29 > 0:33:32emerged in a series of highly personal canvasses.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44They portrayed the arrival of St Columba in the 6th century,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47a pioneer of Gaelic culture in Scotland.
0:33:56 > 0:33:57And the sailing of the emigrant ships
0:33:57 > 0:33:59that swept waves of Gaelic people
0:33:59 > 0:34:01away from their native land.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18This is a painting of a Gaelic community.
0:34:18 > 0:34:20It's a portrait of that community,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24as it's being torn apart and uprooted.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28And the very landscape seems to take it personally.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32And, what strikes me when I look at these paintings up close,
0:34:32 > 0:34:36is that, the reason that, amidst all the swirl of brushstrokes,
0:34:36 > 0:34:41it becomes quite hard to discern detail, to pick out the figures,
0:34:41 > 0:34:45is because, for McTaggart, the community that lives here
0:34:45 > 0:34:48and the identity of the local geography...
0:34:48 > 0:34:50they are interchangeable.
0:34:50 > 0:34:55They are both implicated in an underlying narrative
0:34:55 > 0:34:57of hardship and loss.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09What I love, though, about McTaggart's work
0:35:09 > 0:35:12is that really it's all about heart.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17These images, they breathe, they crash with a kind of tidal energy
0:35:17 > 0:35:22that was totally unique in Scottish art at the time.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34McTaggart's elegy for a disappearing culture was deeply personal.
0:35:36 > 0:35:37But it resonated with the times.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43Across Britain, a new era was dawning,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47heralded by the sweeping changes of the industrial age.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57The Industrial Revolution had turned Scotland from a largely
0:35:57 > 0:36:00agricultural nation into one centred around its cities.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06Nowhere more so than its engine room, Glasgow.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13But a growing artistic movement felt this so-called progress
0:36:13 > 0:36:16was destroying the cultural life of the nation.
0:36:18 > 0:36:21And it was the artist's job to fight against this.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28The Arts and Crafts Movement really believed that art was much more
0:36:28 > 0:36:31than just a commodity.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33They thought that art should be integrated
0:36:33 > 0:36:37into the very fabric of society for the benefit and elevation of all.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43One Scottish institution that really embraced
0:36:43 > 0:36:47the new Arts and Crafts ethos was the Glasgow School of Art.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52The school was a forward-thinking, innovative place
0:36:52 > 0:36:54and one of the first in the world
0:36:54 > 0:36:56to admit women on the same terms as men.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04Margaret MacDonald and her younger sister, Francis, enrolled in 1890.
0:37:06 > 0:37:08Two talented and versatile young artists,
0:37:08 > 0:37:12they found themselves in just the right place at the right time.
0:37:14 > 0:37:17In the school's all-embracing atmosphere,
0:37:17 > 0:37:22the sisters developed their distinctive style across
0:37:22 > 0:37:27a vast range of mediums from fabric and beaten metal,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30to paintings and wall decorations.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37While they were at the School of Art, they were introduced to
0:37:37 > 0:37:43two like-minded students, Herbert McNair and a 25-year-old architect
0:37:43 > 0:37:46who was already standing out from the crowd,
0:37:46 > 0:37:48Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
0:37:55 > 0:38:00They soon became a close-knit group, known to other students as The Four.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09The friends painted together, they partied together.
0:38:09 > 0:38:15Francis coupled up with McNair, Margaret with Macintosh.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18Their lives became intertwined.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25The Four began to devise a haunting new graphic style,
0:38:25 > 0:38:30one that was based on fluid, organic forms, sinewy tendrils
0:38:30 > 0:38:35and the stylised shapes of flowers, plants, trees and stems.
0:38:35 > 0:38:37They would meet in each other's studios
0:38:37 > 0:38:40and have discussions long into the night.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42From out of their imaginations,
0:38:42 > 0:38:47they began to spin a whole new kind of imagery, one which,
0:38:47 > 0:38:50rather like them, was intense, intimate,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53provocative and sensual.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57These young souls were about to press a thorn into the comfortable,
0:38:57 > 0:39:03moral and oh-so-tasteful backside of Victorian convention.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16When The Four first exhibited together, their elongated designs
0:39:16 > 0:39:20and ghoulish figures led critics to dub them The Spook School.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33A tension between flowering abundance
0:39:33 > 0:39:37and macabre collapse permeates everything they created.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42They are examining themes,
0:39:42 > 0:39:47allegories of love, purity and chastity.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49But not in a celebratory way.
0:39:49 > 0:39:55All of the designs and watercolours and drawings that I'm looking at
0:39:55 > 0:40:00seem to take that warm, comforting hug of femininity and motherhood
0:40:00 > 0:40:03and undermine it,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07threaten it with a sense of uncertainty.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11We're entering a kind of nether world, a dream landscape
0:40:11 > 0:40:15that doesn't seem terribly welcoming.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18And, across Europe, there was, at this particular time,
0:40:18 > 0:40:22a real trend for a design aesthetic called Art Nouveau
0:40:22 > 0:40:28which relied heavily upon motifs of elongated female forms
0:40:28 > 0:40:33and slender drawings of flowers and trees.
0:40:33 > 0:40:39But what you see when you are confronted by these images is that
0:40:39 > 0:40:41they're creating a style that was
0:40:41 > 0:40:44distinct and particular to this city.
0:40:47 > 0:40:48The look The Four created
0:40:48 > 0:40:54and applied to a staggering array of work became known as Glasgow Style.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01It was much more than Arts and Crafts with a Celtic twist.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08It was a new vision for Scottish art, a fusion of Celtic symbolism,
0:41:08 > 0:41:13traditional craft and contemporary design for the modern world.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20But it was Charles Rennie Mackintosh who would emerge
0:41:20 > 0:41:23as the talismanic figure of the group.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30Today, we remember him as an architectural genius.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32But, for me, his brilliance lay in the fact
0:41:32 > 0:41:35that he would never be restricted to one discipline.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40He was an artist who sculpted space
0:41:40 > 0:41:44and created environments that immersed you in a total work of art.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55And nowhere did Mackintosh achieve
0:41:55 > 0:41:57this more fully than at Hill House
0:41:57 > 0:42:00in Helensburgh, which he designed
0:42:00 > 0:42:02and built in the early 1900s
0:42:02 > 0:42:04for the publisher Walter Blackie.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Hill House is striking in its simplicitly.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23But when the sun comes out
0:42:23 > 0:42:28and the shadows reveal the intricacy of Mackintosh's design, you can
0:42:28 > 0:42:31really appreciate the sculptural quality of this building.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38It distils Scotland's architectural history into a structure
0:42:38 > 0:42:41that feels disarmingly original, unprecedented.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48It's frustratingly hard to capture in a sketch.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57I've been trying to draw this building
0:42:57 > 0:42:59and it's been a real struggle.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02- All I've come up with is a sketch of a baronial Scottish castle.- Yep.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05There's nothing wrong with that. I think that's right.
0:43:05 > 0:43:06You can see baronial forms here.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09You see the gable, you see the tall chimneys,
0:43:09 > 0:43:11you see the random fenestration.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15These are typical Scottish qualities of vernacular architecture.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17When you say "vernacular", what do you mean?
0:43:17 > 0:43:19Well, what you mean is that this is an architecture
0:43:19 > 0:43:23developed by people in Scotland on Scottish buildings
0:43:23 > 0:43:26and it owes very little to classical tradition.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29But it's still something ancient, something old-fashioned?
0:43:29 > 0:43:32Well, certainly between the 13th century and the 16th century
0:43:32 > 0:43:36are the roots of that style, the Scottish baronial style.
0:43:36 > 0:43:37It's a very pragmatic style.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40It adapts to the site, it adapts to history.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44It changes through the centuries. It's not something that is static,
0:43:44 > 0:43:48that's got set rules that things must be placed in a certain way.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50So, why did Charles Rennie Mackintosh want to make
0:43:50 > 0:43:54a 20th-century building look like a 13th century castle?
0:43:54 > 0:43:56I think for an artist like Mackintosh,
0:43:56 > 0:44:00looking to the past in order to leap forward was very important.
0:44:00 > 0:44:01And there are some aspects in
0:44:01 > 0:44:04the way of working of the Scottish baronial
0:44:04 > 0:44:08which are very congenial to the modernist view of an object.
0:44:08 > 0:44:10The idea that the object has its own life,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14that you build pragmatically, that you allow the building
0:44:14 > 0:44:18to emerge with his own authenticity over a period of time.
0:44:18 > 0:44:20So, he's working like an artist or sculptor,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23making spontaneous decisions on-site?
0:44:23 > 0:44:25Yeah, I think like some others in history.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29I don't think it's too much to compare to Leonardo, to Rafaelli.
0:44:29 > 0:44:30He's an artist-architect.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Hill House is a bold, modernist statement.
0:44:44 > 0:44:47But it's also a very personal and intimate home,
0:44:47 > 0:44:50designed down to the smallest detail
0:44:50 > 0:44:53with Walter Blackie and his family in mind.
0:44:58 > 0:45:02Hill House really does manage to encapsulate all the principles
0:45:02 > 0:45:04that Mackintosh held dear.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09You've got tradition and reinvention and just a sprinkling of magic.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11Who would have believed that behind the facade
0:45:11 > 0:45:15that appears to be so austere, like a Scottish fortress,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19that on the inside it would be lyrical, magical,
0:45:19 > 0:45:22so unshackled by any kind of precedent?
0:45:30 > 0:45:33Throughout this building, nature is welcomed inside.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41Vertical oak beams suggest an internal woodland
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and stencilled motifs creep up the walls like briars.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54It's a place of contrasts where light and shade,
0:45:54 > 0:45:56colour and restraint combine to guide you
0:45:56 > 0:45:58from one room to the next...
0:46:00 > 0:46:02..as if you're being led by a character
0:46:02 > 0:46:04from one of Blackie's fairy tales.
0:46:12 > 0:46:15At Hill House, Mackintosh transforms a family home
0:46:15 > 0:46:18into one of Scotland's greatest works of art.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24It was also a labour of love.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28The creative kinship between Mackintosh and his wife,
0:46:28 > 0:46:31Margaret MacDonald, flourished throughout the building.
0:46:35 > 0:46:38She created fabrics and wall decorations
0:46:38 > 0:46:39to complement his design.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46For the visionary architect, his wife was a soul mate.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50A steadying influence and a lifelong collaborator.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Mackintosh was besotted with Margaret. But he was also
0:46:56 > 0:47:00entranced with her as an artist, and he once said,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03"Margaret had genius, I have only talent."
0:47:03 > 0:47:08But what is certain is that here at Hill House, genius, talent,
0:47:08 > 0:47:13love, lust and wonder tremble together in a genuinely moving
0:47:13 > 0:47:15creative union.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23Hill House is the moment
0:47:23 > 0:47:25when a true Scottish genius blossoms.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34Mackintosh is now hailed as one of the pioneers of the Modern Movement.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44But at the time, his vision was largely misunderstood
0:47:44 > 0:47:46or simply ignored in Scotland.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03But his dedication to challenging tradition, to reinvigorating it
0:48:03 > 0:48:06and making it new couldn't be silenced.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12And soon, another artist would insist that Scottish art
0:48:12 > 0:48:16belonged at the very head of the modernist avant-garde.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22JD Fergusson was one of a group of painters who succeeded
0:48:22 > 0:48:26the Glasgow Boys as the bright young things of Scottish art.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31They would become known as the Colourists,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33because of their vibrant palette.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41Early in his career, Fergusson established a highly saleable style.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46But for Ferg, this wasn't enough.
0:48:49 > 0:48:53He sensed the revolutionary possibilities of contemporary art.
0:48:55 > 0:48:57And there was only one place
0:48:57 > 0:49:00that offered the liberation, light and life he craved.
0:49:02 > 0:49:03Paris.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07Fergusson moved there in 1907.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12When Fergusson arrived in Paris, he declared,
0:49:12 > 0:49:14"Ici commence la liberte."
0:49:14 > 0:49:18For him, Paris really was freedom. And he immediately ran off
0:49:18 > 0:49:20to find himself an appropriately squalid studio flat
0:49:20 > 0:49:22in Montparnasse.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32Fergusson found himself in the very crucible of modern art.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37Picasso was painting prostitutes.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41Matisse, like a wild beast...
0:49:44 > 0:49:47And Andre Derain had entered a dream world all of his own.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55Fergusson plunged into the city's social scene.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01He captured its elegant bohemians and intellectuals
0:50:01 > 0:50:06in a series of bold new canvasses that totally transformed his art.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Fergusson loved Paris and Paris loved him.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29What is extraordinary is that two years after moving here,
0:50:29 > 0:50:31in 1909, he's elected
0:50:31 > 0:50:35a societaire of the Salon d'Automne. This is the most progressive
0:50:35 > 0:50:38exhibiting society in Paris.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41You're elected onto it by your colleagues and contemporaries.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46So to have reached that position and have it recognised within two years,
0:50:46 > 0:50:50is extraordinary, and that's why Fergusson, more than any other
0:50:50 > 0:50:55British artist, let alone Scottish, plays a part in the birth
0:50:55 > 0:50:56of Modern Art.
0:50:56 > 0:51:00So, why in that short period, was he esteemed to be worthy
0:51:00 > 0:51:03of membership of this society? What was he doing that intrigued them?
0:51:03 > 0:51:06You see an immediate change in his work when he arrives here.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10There's a series of street scenes of Paris, literally getting to know
0:51:10 > 0:51:15his new home. But also he had a great deal of interest in
0:51:15 > 0:51:18the Fauve... The so-called Fauve work of artists like Matisse
0:51:18 > 0:51:22and Derain. They showed at the Salon d'Automne in 1905.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25Their expressive brush strokes, their acidic colour...
0:51:25 > 0:51:28were considered so savage that they were christened
0:51:28 > 0:51:33the Beasts, the Fauves by the critic Louis Vauxcelles.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37And Fergusson is not only one of the first British artists to become
0:51:37 > 0:51:41aware of them but to see their work very soon after it's painted.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44But more than that, to understand what they were doing,
0:51:44 > 0:51:47interpret it and to make it his own.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51And that is what he's recognised for when he is a elected a societaire.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59Establishing himself in Paris gave Fergusson the freedom
0:51:59 > 0:52:03to develop his paintings, his instincts, his ideas...
0:52:03 > 0:52:06in a way he could never have done back home.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11One of the reasons that Fergusson had flounced out of the Academy
0:52:11 > 0:52:14in Edinburgh was because he realised he was going to have to wait
0:52:14 > 0:52:18three years before painting a nude model from life.
0:52:18 > 0:52:21Now, in Paris, there was no such prudery, he painted from models,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24he painted his friends, his lovers.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27And increasingly, these canvasses were less about capturing
0:52:27 > 0:52:29a likeness, and more about celebrating
0:52:29 > 0:52:32what he defined as a kind of "elemental femininity."
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Between 1907 and 1913, Fergusson would return to
0:52:42 > 0:52:45the female form again and again.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56These celebrations of womanhood, sexuality and the feminine spirit
0:52:56 > 0:52:57were more radical than anything
0:52:57 > 0:52:59being painted in Britain at the time.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08His glorious nudes would establish Fergusson as the first
0:53:08 > 0:53:10truly modern Scottish painter.
0:53:16 > 0:53:18And it was in Paris in 1913
0:53:18 > 0:53:21that Fergusson's vision of powerful femininity
0:53:21 > 0:53:25was magically transformed into flesh -
0:53:25 > 0:53:27in the form of dancer Margaret Morris.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35The attraction was immediate and enduring.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43But all too soon, Margaret had to return to London.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45And without her...Paris lost its lustre.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00So Fergusson headed south to the Cote d'Azur,
0:54:00 > 0:54:03in search of more sun, more colour.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12He rented a cottage on the little-known Cap d'Antibes.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22And he wrote repeatedly and desperately,
0:54:22 > 0:54:24begging Margaret to join him.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29"My dear flapper, I've taken a little villa at Antibes.
0:54:29 > 0:54:32"It's practically an island and quite quiet.
0:54:32 > 0:54:34"You don't need to dress at all.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38"I mean, dress up. If you don't come down, you're a rotter.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40"And no sport at all."
0:54:42 > 0:54:47At first, Meg resisted, but in the end, well, you would, wouldn't you?
0:54:50 > 0:54:55"It was," she said, "just how a perfect honeymoon should be.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57"But seldom is."
0:55:02 > 0:55:06Together, they revelled in the sun, sea and languid pleasures
0:55:06 > 0:55:07of the good life.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15With Margaret Morris as his muse, Fergusson finally completed
0:55:15 > 0:55:18a work he'd been wrestling with for three years.
0:55:21 > 0:55:27It's a painting about love, vitality and a primal lust for life.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32Fergusson would call it Les Eus, which means "The Healthy Ones".
0:55:36 > 0:55:40It's a monumental canvas that captures what it feels like
0:55:40 > 0:55:44to be modern, Continental and Scottish - all at the same time.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51In this painting, Fergusson really does manage to capture
0:55:51 > 0:55:56the spirit of the age. I mean, this was a time of dazzling upheaval
0:55:56 > 0:56:01and change. And Scottish art was part of that bigger picture.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05It was bold, it was willing to defy convention.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10It was really immersed in the ideas that were shaping the avant-garde.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14So this is a time when Scottish art had a particular
0:56:14 > 0:56:19and very distinct identity. One that had been shaped by its history,
0:56:19 > 0:56:24and by its heritage. But also by its wanderlust, the willingness
0:56:24 > 0:56:28of Scottish artists to go out there and meet the world,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31to evolve, and to reinvent.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35The reason that Scottish art matters, for me,
0:56:35 > 0:56:37it's not because it's so unique.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40It's because you can see in a painting like this,
0:56:40 > 0:56:42it has always been
0:56:42 > 0:56:46profoundly engaged in that great collaborative process
0:56:46 > 0:56:48that is our common story.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51That is the history and the future of art.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05The blissful time that Fergusson spent with Margaret Morris
0:57:05 > 0:57:08in the South of France was not to last.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15One morning, Meg looked out towards the sea and murmured,
0:57:15 > 0:57:19"Nothing can ever be as perfect as this."
0:57:21 > 0:57:23Shortly afterwards, she went for a stroll,
0:57:23 > 0:57:26and pausing beneath the pines,
0:57:26 > 0:57:28she started to paint the Antibes lighthouse,
0:57:28 > 0:57:32when a gendarme approached. He tapped her on the shoulder
0:57:32 > 0:57:34and said, "Miss, it's forbidden."
0:57:34 > 0:57:37"But why?" asked Meg, innocently.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39"Because of the war."
0:57:42 > 0:57:46It was August 1914, when all the innocence and gaiety
0:57:46 > 0:57:48had come to a violent end.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53GUNS BOOM
0:57:53 > 0:57:57Many of Scotland's artists were called away to serve their country.
0:57:59 > 0:58:03And when they returned, if they returned, it was to find a nation
0:58:03 > 0:58:05irrevocably changed.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12In the fractured post-war age, all the beauty, all the life,
0:58:12 > 0:58:16all the vigour they had once painted would feel like something from
0:58:16 > 0:58:18a bygone era.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22In the years that were coming, this world would need its artists
0:58:22 > 0:58:26more than ever. It would need them to create new ways of seeing,
0:58:26 > 0:58:29it would need them to make sense of a broken world,
0:58:29 > 0:58:33in which all those conventions, all those precedents,
0:58:33 > 0:58:38all the traditions that we once held dear, lay bleeding in the rubble.