The Fisher Boy

Painted in 1870, the year he was elected a full member of the Royal Scottish Academy (a fact he proudly proclaims after his signature), this charming little picture shows McTaggart before he developed the bold impressionistic style for which he is best known. His colouring is still sombre, like that of many Scottish painters of the day, notably William Orchardson and John Pettie, who had both been students with McTaggart at the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh. The picture's subject-matter, however, is entirely characteristic. McTaggart always treated children with great sympathy (the delightful Spring of 1864 in the National Gallery in Edinburgh is a famous example), and boats and sailing were a lifelong passion. Indeed according to his biographer, 'he found them too absorbing, and, afraid of anything that might interfere with his giving his best energies to his art, he resolutely curbed the inclination, and seldom indulged in more than some quiet rowing and sea-fishing in wet weather or in the evenings when painting was over for the day.'