7. Moderate Modernity. The Collecting of The Hague School Art in Scotland during the Second Half of the 19th Century
Alba Campo Rosillo
Scottish industrialists were avid art collectors in the second half of the nineteenth century. This period saw significant social and economic change that allowed this group of wealthy people to collect the kind of art they appreciated, and as I will explain, this included art made by The Hague School (1860s-1890s) artists. These artworks provided the industrialists with both a sense of belonging to the upper class and reinforcing a distinctive Scottish identity. In the following article, I propose four factors that explain why the Scottish bourgeoisie collected Dutch contemporary art: Scottish social and economic history, the role of the art lover John Forbes White, the marketing strategies of the art dealers and the specific artistic characteristics of the paintings that appealed to Scottish collectors.
Cover image
Willem Maris
Meadow with cows near a pond, 1880-1904
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv./cat.nr. SK-A-2428