JOHN RITCHIE (SCOTTISH 1828-1905)
CURLING ON THE WATER OF LEITH
Estimate: £10,000 - £15,000
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale | Lots 112- 206 | Thursday 05 June from 6pm
Description
Signed and dated 1856, oil on canvas
Dimensions
85cm x 107cm (33.5in x 42in)
Provenance
Lyon & Turnbull, The Drambuie Collection Part I, 26 January 2006, lot 88
Footnote
By the end of the eighteenth century, curling had become Scotland’s favourite game. (David B. Smith, 'An Account of the Duddingston Curling Society, 1795-1854', Book of the Old Edinburgh Club, New Series 7, 2008, pp.87-126). Although the precise location of Curling on the Water of Leith has yet to be confirmed, it appears the setting is Canonmills Loch, which lay at the foot of Edinburgh’s New Town and was frequently the setting for curling matches in the winter. Painted two years after Street Scene on a Winter Day, Ritchie’s curling scene demonstrates a shift away from pure narrative towards an exquisite evocation of atmosphere, using thin washes and glazes to evoke the sense of chill evening light. The figures are incidental to the composition, their preoccupation overshadowed by the intensely visualised winter landscape.