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A Rocky Wooded Landscape with Ruined Castle Beside a Loch

Artist: Nasmyth, Alexander (after)

The work appears to be a copy after a near identically sized oil in Glasgow Museums Collection (Acc No.265), which is attributed to Alexander Nasmyth, and titled "Wooded Landscape With a Castle" (vide ArtUK; https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/wooded-landscape-with-a-castle-85478/search/makers:alexander-nasmyth-17581840/page/4).

A further version, a copy by Nasmyth's daughter Anne Gibson Nasmyth (1798-1874) was gifted to the English National Trust in 2008 and hangs in the NT property of Hartwell House, Aylesbury (acc.1548034) https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/river-landscape-with-figures-by-the-banks-a-castle-and-a-town-beyond-217465/view_as/grid/search/makers:anne-gibson-nasmyth-17981874/page/1

In 2022 the RSA posted the work on ArtDetective on ArtUK to try to establish whether the landscape depicted was real or fanciful. The outcome was that the attributuion to Nasmyth be maintained and that the landscape was most probably classical Scottish but certainly not a distant view of Edinburgh as had been suggested by one participant in the discussion.

The transcript of the thread is as follows;
"Can we identify the landscape depicted here, or is it a fanciful construct?
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A Rocky Wooded Landscape, with Ruined Castle beside a Loch
Photo credit: Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture

Topic: Subject or sitter
Our work appears to be related to (copy after?) a near identical oil in Glasgow, dated to 1817. https://bit.ly/3BYrsYJ

The ruined castle at right has a European feel to it but the distant town with a prominent spire and another large building to the right of it and the mountains beyond suggest Scotland, without bringing any specific locality to mind.

Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, 12 Aug 2022
Entry reviewed by Art UK
2 attachments
edii-rsa-2008-067-town.jpg (158 KB)
gl-gm-265-town.jpg (85 KB)
Completed, 21 Nov 2022
Outcome
Marion Richards, Art Detective Manager
Marion Richards, Art Detective Manager, 21/11/2022 16:59
This discussion is now closed. The title and the attribution to Alexander Nasmyth have been retained.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the discussion. To anyone viewing this discussion for the first time, please see below for all the comments that led to this conclusion.

9 comments
David Saywell, Art Detective Officer
David Saywell, Art Detective Officer, 12/08/2022 15:53
Louise Boreham has made a contribution via a submission: 'I think this may be a view towards Edinburgh from Craiglockhart. Arthur's Seat on left and Pentland Hills to right. It would be too much of a coincidence to have two almost identical paintings of the same scene.'

Donald Livingstone
Donald Livingstone, 12/08/2022 19:58
I was wondering where the date 1817 mentioned in the introduction comes from. Both paintings are marvellous - Glasgow's trees seem more credible and the low light coming through the arch and the sharp reflections almost seem the point of the painting - but the RSA's own has finer rocks on the left hand side and a neater town. I doubt it's anywhere other than somewhere one would like to be.

Marcie Doran
Marcie Doran, 14/08/2022 15:02
An almost identical work by Alexander Nasmyth’s daughter Anne Gibson Nasmyth (1798–1874) is at Hartwell House.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/river-landscape-with-figures-by-the-banks-a-castle-and-a-town-beyond-217465

Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture
Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, 15/08/2022 11:43
The 1817 date appears to be a red-herring, being the date of a similarily titled painting by Nasmyth in Glasgow's collections (purchased 1960) - our mistake.

Thank you Marcie for bringing this further version to our attention - if we can crack the location (unless Donald's opinion that it is indeed a fabricated landscape is correct) then we are helping not one, but three collections.

If Louise is correct can we clarify what the middle distance town is - surely it is too flat for the famously hilly Edinburgh?

Pieter van der Merwe, Maritime Subjects
Pieter van der Merwe, Maritime Subjects, 15/08/2022 12:15
Certainly not Edinburgh and a case, I suspect, of 'too many castles' to be real (except perhaps the town, with the surroundings idealised): a ruined one on the right, a fortified tower middle-distance left, and a keep-like one in the town.

Nasmyth was a polymath and (as Donald has suggested) it looks more like an exercise in 'Scottish Claudian'. There may be comment in the two standard sources on the Nasmyths: Janet Cooksey, 'Alexander Nasmyth 1758-1840: a man of the Scottish Renaissance' (1991) and Johnson& Money on the family, 'The Nasmyth family of painters' (1977).

Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture
Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, 15/08/2022 12:41
Thanks Pieter.

Am not readily seeing anything in Cooksey of help - perhaps due to the "attributed to" status of our and Glasgow's works.

Andrew Greg, British 19th C, except portraits
Andrew Greg, British 19th C, except portraits, 15/08/2022 16:06
Nasmyth of course knew the topography of Edinburgh. His many views of the city, as found by searching for images of 'Alexander Nasmyth Edinburgh', show him if anything exaggerating Caste Rock and Calton Hill. As Pieter says, this cannot be Edinburgh from any direction, and is almost certainly an invented 'Scottish' landscape. Which, if either, is the 'original' is hard to say. The townscapes look finely detailed in both Edinburgh and Glasgow versions.

Andrew Greg, British 19th C, except portraits
Andrew Greg, British 19th C, except portraits, 18/11/2022 17:20
In the absence of any futher comments, I would recommend maintaining the attrbution to Alexander Nasmyth, particularly in the light of the copy(?) by his daughter at Hartwell House. The location cannot be Edinburgh and is most probably an invented 'classical Scottish' landscape.

Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture
Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture, 21/11/2022 14:36
Thank you Andrew (and all other contributors) we are happy to maintain the attribution to Alexander Nasmyth and to note that the location cannot be identified, is certainly not Edinburgh, and is most probably an invented "classical Scottish" landscape.

Title
A Rocky Wooded Landscape, with Ruined Castle beside a Loch
Artist(s)
Alexander Nasmyth (1758–1840) (after)
Collection
Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture
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