Lot 3
JOSEPH MILNE (SCOTTISH 1857-1911)
MUSSEL GATHERING, SUNSET
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Day Sale | Lots 1 to 108 | Thursday 04 December 2025 from 2pm
Description
Signed, oil on canvas
Dimensions
46cm x 61cm (18in x 24in)
Footnote
Beach scenes of cockling, gathering mussels or seaweed (‘wrack’), or children playing, all featured in Joseph Milne’s work, although these usually have generic titles, without specific location names. Although unidentified, Milne seems to have used the present view in several works - looking west along this beach, with sailing boat masts in the far distance. This may be at North Berwick, although this is not confirmed.
Milne was a professional landscape artist all his career. He trained at the Royal Scottish Academy Life Class in the 1880s, along with his younger brother William Watt Milne, both winning prizes. The elder Milne exhibited annually at the Academy (from 1877 to 1902); at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (from 1880 to 1902); and at the Royal Academy of Arts in London on six occasions (1887 to 1908).
We are grateful to Maurice Millar, author of The Missing Colourist: The Search for John Maclauchlan Milne RSA (privately published in 2022 and available via The Missing Colourist website) for his help with our research.