ERSKINE NICOL R.S.A., A.R.A. (SCOTTISH 1825-1904)
THE LAST DROP
Estimate: £3,000 - £5,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 112- 206 | Thursday 05 June from 6pm
Description
Signed and dated 1872, oil on canvas
Dimensions
63.5cm x 48.5cm (25in x 19in)
Footnote
Erskine Nicol’s paintings typify the genre-style character studies that were in high demand during the Victorian period. Nicol was born in Leith, but from an early age he fell in love with Ireland, and accordingly his pictures often depict Scottish and Irish life through the lens of nineteenth-century social issues. His work is distinguished from that of his contemporaries by its mischievous wit, inviting us to delight in character archetypes that will be familiar to most viewers.
The Last Drop dates to 1872, by which point Nicol was a prolific and successful exhibitor across Scotland and England. Of his portraits, William McKay wrote that ‘His brush seldom portrayed beauty… but his adroit touch is singularly happy in its application to the suntanned faces of pronounced physiognomy and dilapidated costume’. (William D. McKay, The Scottish School of Painting, Duckworth & Co., London and Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1906, p.347)