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Edinburgh from Craigleith Quarry
Bell, John, Oil painting
Edinburgh from Craigleith Quarry
Edinburgh from Craigleith Quarry
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About this image
Related
Location
Category
Museums & Galleries Item
Item no
20667
Title
Edinburgh from Craigleith Quarry
Description
A landscape painting depicting Craigleith Quarry in a hive of activity. In the foreground the quarry is depicted as part of a vast landscape of yellow and green fields that stretches far into the distance. A quarry pond sits in the central space surrounded by high walls of rocks that are interspersed with trees, shrubbery and grass. The colour palate is of natural tones with the setting of the quarry in the side of the country landscape. Small figures decorate the scene, busy in their activities. To the left of the painting cranes and building blocks are depicted as groups of men load horse and carts with stone slabs. To the right three women are sitting on the rocks as they watch two men leading a horse and cart away from the quarry. In the distant background of the painting, Edinburgh City can be made out as Arthur's Seat and other known features of Edinburgh's skyline can be identified.
Artist / maker
Bell, John
Size
139.8 x 193.1cm
Type
Oil painting
Location
City Art Centre
Accession number
CAC1978/10
Craigleith Quarry supplied much of the stone used in the building of the New Town. In its heyday 60 carts were making an average of four journeys per day into the city from Craigleith. The artist, in using the quarry as an element in a much grander view of the city, has left a valuable record of how the quarry operated in mid-Victorian times.
Exhibitions with this item
Historic Edinburgh
Other views of this item
Related images
Related subjects
Agriculture and fisheries
>
Landscape
>
Fields
Animals
>
Mammals
>
Horses
Landscape
>
Land
>
Rocks
Landscape
>
Land
>
Woods and forests
Landscape
>
Water
>
Loch, lakes and ponds
Manufacturing Industry
>
Manufacturing equipment
>
Excavators
Manufacturing Industry
>
Manufacturing equipment
>
Hoisting machinery
Manufacturing Industry
>
Manufacturing equipment
>
Pumps
Manufacturing Industry
>
Manufacturing facilities
>
Quarries
People
>
Industry
>
Construction workers
Transport
>
Land
>
Horse and carts
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