ONE of the finest and most famous paintings by the great Aberdonian artist William Dyce has been saved for the National Galleries of Scotland.
Rosslyn Chapel South Aisle was painted in 1830 by Dyce (1806-64) and has now gone on display at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh following its acquisition by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS).
Along with The Faggot Gatherers, a powerful painting by the hugely influential French artist Jean-François Millet (1814 – 75), the Rosslyn Chapel painting had been on loan to NGS for several years but both will now become parts of the permanent collection having been accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by the UK Government from the estate of Beatrix Cooper and allocated to NGS.
NGS stated: “When Dyce produced this exquisite study in the 1830s, the chapel was already a popular tourist destination and a site of inspiration for artists such as JMW Turner and David Roberts.
“The painting is the first depiction in oil of the interior of the chapel to enter the national collection and a perfect complement to other works NGS holds by Dyce. He specialised chiefly in religious and medieval subjects, but had wide-ranging interests, including medicine, geology and art education.”
Christopher Baker, director of European and Scottish Art and Portraiture at NGS, said: “These fascinating paintings enrich the narratives of French and Scottish art in the national collection.
“Dyce’s Rosslyn Chapel, South Aisle demonstrates his extraordinary subtlety as a painter of architecture: it is a mysterious painting that evokes the beauty of a site made world famous by Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ (2003).
“Millet’s The Faggot Gatherers, is the first oil painting by the artist to enter the collection; its arrival means we can demonstrate his enduring influence both on French and Scottish art of late 19th century for the first time.
“To mark the occasion, they have both been put on display in the Scottish National Gallery for the public to enjoy.”
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