Turner in January

For most, New Year in Edinburgh conjures images of the city’s raucous Hogmanay street party – but since 1901, the first day of January has also been marked in a rather gentler manner. The collector Henry Vaughan bequeathed 38 watercolours by J.M.W. Turner to the Scottish National Gallery in 1900, on condition – stipulated with both Victorian civic-mindedness and an awareness of the aversion of watercolours to light – that they be shown ‘all at one time free of charge and in the month of January [when the light is weakest] and no longer’. The paintings are on show this year at the Royal Scottish Academy, rather than their former setting at the Scottish National Gallery (until 31 January). They range from early sketches and copies after Turner’s forebears in the medium such as John Robert Cozens, to luminous depictions of Alpine vistas made when Turner was at the height of his power. Other highlights include elegiac depictions of Walter Scott’s home at Abbotsford, completed the year after the writer’s death in 1832. Find out more from the National Galleries of Scotland’s website.

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