Early Stornoway paintings reveal ‘A kind of Glenrothes for the 18th century’

PETER URPETH reports on the unveiling in Stornoway of a new acquisition by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

THE TWO earliest known oil paintings of the landscape of the Western Isles have gone at display at Museum nan Eilean in Stornoway this week, providing a fascinating insight into the landscape and layout of the town and surrounding area over two hundred years ago.

The exhibition is all the more significant not only because the pictures have never been displayed together before but because the Museum has been chosen for the first time by the National Galleries of Scotland as the location to unveil a new acquisition, and to mark the occasion James Holloway, Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, came in person to open the exhibition.

Featuring two pictures by James Barret – A view of the Village of Stornoway (1798)’, and The Village of Stornaway with a shooting Lodge, on the Isle of Lewes, the exhibition also features other early paintings of the islands and the oldest known map of Stornoway.

Barret’s A view of the Village of Stornoway (1798) was bought by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery at auction last year and has subsequently been restored in the National Galleries’ conservation studios. The painting’s route to Stornoway was not itself without drama, given that when the painting appeared in the salesroom the location depicted was uncertain. But with help from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, the Portrait Gallery staff confirmed that the view was Stornoway and proved that it and its companion picture were the earliest known oil paintings of the landscape of the Western Isles.

The artist, James Barret (1785-1819), inherited his talent as a painter from his father. He was the son of the artist George Barret, and took over from him as Master Painter at Chelsea Hospital, London. He painted watercolours and oils and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1785 to 1819.

As well as Stornoway, his Highland views include Loch Lomond, Aviemore and Balnagowan. What is also known about the artist is that he was employed by the Mackenzie family to record their estates and painted a picture of their main residence at Brahan Castle, the ruins of which are near Dingwall.

A view of the Village of Stornoway is thought to have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1798. It shows the newly built port with its fleet of herring busses as a thriving concern, with a view of the inner harbour looking eastwards across the bay. A lone clipper ship can be seen in the distance, and for James Holloway the picture provides a unique record of the ‘social experiment’ the government entered into developing the port after 1745.

James Holloway commented: “I think this is a very interesting landscape because in a way it tells the story of a social experiment. Many people think that governments and others didn’t do things like building new towns in the 18th Century, but they did and what we can see of Stornoway is a kind of Glenrothes of the 1790s.

“It is also interesting because the artist can be said to be standing with his back to the entire distressed part of the islands and the old blackhouses, and is only looking at the Brave New World of the thriving town. These developments were started to try and halt population decline and emigration, and in the foreground of the picture can be seen the new breeds of cattle and sheep that were being brought in to transform the landscape, and so what we are seeing is a kind of social experiment that paid off. We also have to remember that Barret was painting these pictures for the Mackenzies and they wouldn’t have placed these commissions if they weren’t very proud of what they had achieved.”

The picture has been beautifully restored, and glows with the kind of vivid but watery pinks, blues and greens that many locals will recognise as belonging to island dawns and sunsets.

The value of the National Portrait Gallery’s move in unveiling the picture could be seen at the opening of the show as local councillors and officials pored over the landscapes trying to recognise terrain and buildings. With paintings context is very often everything, and it is plain that while the finesse of these paintings might be recognised in Edinburgh galleries, their value and interest is greatly enhanced by being on local ground, before local eyes.

James Holloway added: “The new painting adds context to our existing collection of Mackenzie portraits in the gallery. One of these, painted in the 1770s, shows the last of the old Mackenzie chiefs in Naples where, as a Jacobite, he was living in exile. The picture shows that he had a wonderful life there surrounded by Greek vases with concerts of Mozart’s music going on and it is a picture that is meant to show how they were really very civilised. What we have to realise is that the money for all that was coming from their estates in the Western Isles and Kintail and was being sent over to Naples.

“We also have another picture in the national collection, a huge canvas by the American artist Benjamin West, that shows King Alexander III being saved from being gored by a stag by the Mackenzies and being rewarded for their bravery with the title. That picture was really meant to say that they were an old family with a great Gaelic past.

“We also have a picture by Landseer of an 18th Century scene in which the factor of Mackenzie’s estates in Kintail is collecting rents to be sent to Naples. And so the new painting adds great context to these other paintings and forms a fascinating collection that, hopefully people will also come to Edinburgh to see.”

The other early painting on display, Barret’s The Village of Stornaway with a shooting Lodge, on the Isle of Lewes, has been lent by Christopher Sheppard of the Aline Estate, and shows the harbour at sunset from Gallows Hill. It is a window through which we can see late 18th century Stornoway, described by a visitor at the time as a settlement that was ‘daily increasing’.

In the picture can be seen Seaforth Lodge. The ruins of the medieval castle of the Clan Macleod that once protected the settlement can be seen in front of South Beach on the right of the picture, and St Columba’s Parish Church, newly built in 1794, can be seen on the far left.

Accompanying these earliest oil landscape paintings of Stornoway is the earliest known map of the town.  It was made from a survey of 1785 and commissioned by the ‘heritable’ owner of Lewis, Francis Humberston Mackenzie, and 7th Earl of Seaforth. The plan, was restored by the Scottish Record Office in 1996 is in the care of Stornoway Library.

Commenting on the opening of the exhibition, Councillor Malcolm J Graham, Chairman of Arts and Leisure, Comhairle nan Eilean, said: “Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and Museum nan Eilean are delighted to host this joint exhibition which enables locals and visitors to enjoy these important paintings which give us a vivid sense of what old Stornoway looked like in the late 18th Century.”

Richard Langhorne, Curator, Museum nan Eilean said: “We are delighted that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery should have chosen to unveil their recently acquired view of Stornoway painted by James Barret at Museum nan Eilean. This painter has provided us with the earliest known views of the town and this unveiling has provided us with the opportunity to display at the same time a companion piece by the same artist.  For this we are enormously grateful to Mr Chris Sheppard of the Aline Estate for allowing us to borrow it.”

The exhibition, entitled ‘…this place will merit the pencil of the first landscape painter in the Kingdom – Portraits of Stornoway 1798 by James Barret’, is at Museum nan Eilean, Francis Street, Stornoway, 2003.