Thread by @RobertBohan

Thread: One of my favourite art galleries is in Edinburgh. The National Gallery on the Mound is one of the great treasures of Scotland. Here’s why a trip to the Scottish capital is incomplete without visiting this small, yet perfectly formed, collection!

The gallery has a great group of early Renaissance works. Detail from Botticelli’s Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child (c1490), Leonardo’s Study of Dogs Paws (c1480) & Raphael’s Drawing of A Kneeling Nude Woman (c1518)

For Christmas I have a gift for everyone who buys one of my works - you can choose a second free. Take a look!

https://twitter.com/RobertBohan/status/1328789756331880451

Titian is represented in the collection by a number of ravishing masterpieces. Three Ages of Man (1512-4), Venus Anadyomene (1520-5) & Diana & Actaeon (1559). Edinburgh is vital to visit if you want to understand one of the greatest Italian painters.

Jacopo Bassano’s Adoration of the Kings (1542), Guercino’s The Virgin & Child (c1615) & Giovanni Battista Pittoni’s (1725) The Apotheosis of St Jerome with St Peter of Alcántara & a Franciscan. The historic-style hanging of works in the museum add to their dramatic qualities.

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo has two major works at the Gallery. These are The Finding of Moses (c1735) & The Meeting of Anthony & Cleopatra (c1745). Also shown is Domenichino’s The Adoration of the Shepherds (c1607-10).

One of the Gallery’s greatest masterpieces is Canova’s The Three Graces (1817) which is one of the most important neoclassical works in Western Art. I also got a chance to photograph a contemporary Edinburgh version outside the museum.

There is a small but extremely choice collection of Spanish works. El Greco (1577-9) An Allegory, Velázquez (1618) An Old Woman Cooking Eggs & Murillo’s Personification of Summer (1640). The Old Woman is one of Velázquez’s earliest works.

There are a number of dramatic Flemish works including some showstoppers by Van Dyck. Rubens’ (1635-8) The Feast of Herod & Van Dyck’s St Sebastian (c1620) & The Lomellini Family (1626-7). Van Dyck returned to the homoerotic Sebastian regularly

Dutch painting is represented by all the greatest exponents of the school. Jan Lievens (c1631) Portrait of a Young Man, Rembrandt (c1645) Woman in Bed & Self-Portrait aged 51 (1657). The Lievens is arguably his greatest work

Amongst French painters are Nicolas Poussin & his famed Sacrament series (1644-8) including the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Watteau (c1718-9) Fêtes Vénitiennes & Chardin (c1750s) Vase of Flowers . The latter is one of Chardin’s most beautiful still lives

One of my favourite works is the Corot Entrance to a Wood. François-Xavier Fabre (1819) Portrait of a Man, Corot (c1825) Ville-d’Avray: Entrance to a Wood & Monet (1891) Poplars on the Epte. Corot was part of a movement that would lead to Impressionism

Edinburgh has a superb group of Impressionist & Post-Impressionist Paintings. Monet (1891) Haystacks: Snow Effect, Degas (1879) Diego Martelli, Gaugin (1899) Three Tahitians & (1888) The Vision after the Sermon. The last mentioned is a hallucinatory work of spiritual depth

Edinburgh is also home to the national collection of Scottish art. Allan Ramsay (1766) Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (1758) The Artist’s Wife & Henry Raeburn (c1795) The Skating Minister, Dr Robert Walker. Also shown is David Wilkie’s (1813) suspicious The Letter of Introduction

Scottish art has always been diverse with many different styles including Celtic inspired works. William Dyce (1837) Francesco da Rimini, James Paterson (1887) Autumn in Glencairn, Joseph Crawhall (c1895) The White Drake & John Duncan (1913) Saint Bride

The Gallery has a number of superb portraits including the world famous Lady Agnew. John Singer Sargent (1892) Lady Agnew, Gainsborough (1777) Mrs Graham. A new acquisition is Ramsay’s (1745) Prince Charles Edward Stuart which was rediscovered in 2014 hanging in a stately home.

Here’s more on my special offer. Please note some of the works have already sold.

https://twitter.com/robertbohan/status/1328979198195740673

If you’d like to support my threads you can always buy me a coffee! Here’s how: ko-fi.com/robertbohan