Skene's Highlands Monuments

Born in 1775, James Skene was alluded to, by his great friend Sir Walter Scott, as "the first amateur draughtsman in Scotland" comparing Skene's artistic ability to his own writing ability by commenting that, "as thou with pencil, I with pen, the features traced of hill and glen". Although admitted to the Scottish bar in 1797 and "having walked Parliament House" for a time, Skene was a keen artist and antiquarian and acted as the curator of the Royal Society of Edinburgh's library and museum for a time.

His interest in history and his love of painting is visible in many of his watercolours of the Highlands, which depict a number of Scotland's historic buildings and monuments. Although Skene has been accused of romanticising the views of the Scottish countryside, his draughtsmanship and detailed depictions of the various castles, ancient sites, and fortifications of Scotland have given the world an important record of their state and appearance during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

This exhibition aims to demonstrate the relationship between Skene's painting and his interest in Scottish history, as well as to present an idea of how these important historical sites would have appeared during the early 19th century. Skene's architecturally detailed depictions of the many ruined castles and fortifications of the highlands demonstrate their role and use in the day-to-day life of their communities, while his sketches of the finer details of early Christian carved stones emphasis a certain fascination in their meaning. This curiosity and interest becomes even more evident in his bird-eye sketches of the lay-out plans of early forts and settlements, which are accompanied by size and measurement details.

However, throughout the analytical, the intriguing and the factual base of his watercolours, what appears most evidently in Skene's work is a lightness of touch, line and stroke in his work and the ability to depict a lot, with very little.