The Last Turning, Winter, Moniaive by James Paterson (1854-1932). Painted in 1885, it depicts a woman walking along a riverbank towards the village of Moniaive in Dumfriesshire.
Paterson studied at the Glasgow School of Art before becoming a pupil in the studio of Alexander Robertson (1807-1886). In 1878 he persuaded his parents to allow him to give up his day job as a clerk and to give him an allowance of £10 a month to develop his art. For the next five years he spent his winters studying in Paris and his summers travelling and painting in Scotland or Europe. The French-inspired, realistic style which Paterson and other young Scottish artists adopted set them apart from others and they formed a loose group known as the "Glasgow School" or the "Glasgow Boys."
In the summer of 1879 Paterson visited Moniaive for the first time and he returned on other summers. Paterson was primarily a landscape artist and the Dumfriesshire scenery greatly appealed to him. He moved to the village in 1874 after his marriage and lived there until 1897 when he moved to Edinburgh.
Reference: 3349
Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums
Keywords:
artists, Glasgow Boys, Glasgow School, Glasgow School of Art, landscapes, winter, women