By the Bonnie Banks O' Fordie

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

20710

Title

By the Bonnie Banks O' Fordie

Description

The decorative and simplified style of this work shows three young women walking along a river bank. One girl to the left of the painting is bending to pick a wild white rose. All three girls wear long Victoria dresses with aprons of various decorations. The landscape behind shows a winding river with sheep grazing on the opposite river bank.

Artist / maker

Mackie, Charles Hodge

Size

62.0 x 91.0 cm

Type

Oil painting

Location

City Art Centre

Accession number

CAC1982/20

Charles Mackie was born in Aldershot and studied at the RSA schools in Edinburgh. In 1891 Mackie visited Paris and Brittany, where he was influenced by the work of Gauguin and the Pont-Aven School. The village of Pont-Aven, in the south-western part of the Breton peninsula, was a favourite destination for artists of many nationalities, especially for art students seeking a cheap place to live during the summer holidays. Artists such as Paul Gauguin and Émile Bernard created their new Synthetist style, where form and colour for their own sakes came to have a value independent of traditional narrative.
By The Bonnie Banks of Fordie, which illustrates the Scottish ballad of the same title, has also been called by the poem's first line, 'There Were Three Maidens Pu'd Flower'.
The painting with its simplified forms and bright colours shows the influence of Pont- Aven School while retaining the romanticism of the original ballad.

Exhibitions with this item

Other views of this item

Related images

Related subjects

Landscape > Land > Woods and forests

Landscape > Water > Rivers and streams

People > Children > Children playing

People > Children > Girls

Plants > Flowers > Flowers

Plants > Trees > Trees