Collections

Park and Ruined Abbey

Artist: Thomson, Adam Bruce, OBE RSA · 1885-1976

Park and Ruined Abbey

The tracery of the large five-light window and the flanking pinnacles identify the ruins as the North wall of Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders.…

The tracery of the large five-light window and the flanking pinnacles identify the ruins as the North wall of Dryburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders.

There is a sense of repetition of the shapes of both the gable and the window tracery in the structures of the foreground trees.

A once-common belief held that gothic architecture with its towering pillars and vaulted ceilings could be traced back directly to the canopy of the forest, and it may be this which Thomson is alluding to here. The mature foreground trees both frame the gable wall and suggest the pillars which once lined the nave.

The painting was exhibited at the RSA in 1961 catalogue number 290, and submitted as his Diploma Work later that same year.

© The Artist's Estate