Lot Essay
The subject matter of this work can be attributed to the artist's collaboration with his close friend J G Ochar. Ochar planned to publish a collection of humorous Scottish stories for which McTaggart provided a series of approximatley 15 small paintings. However, owing to Ochar's death in 1898, the book was never published. Caw writes that McTaggart suffered from Brights disease during the Spring of 1897, and being confined to his studio, McTaggart turned his energy to producing this series of works, providing an interlude at a time in his career when he was mainly concerned with the production of land and seascapes.