John Knox: The Light Sublime
Past exhibition
Overview
An exhibition on the landscape and people of the West of Scotland will accompany the paintings by John Knox (1776-1845)
Whether on a grand or diminutive scale, John Knox’s work depicts the epic spectacle of areas that, until the late 18th century, were not much visited. His subject was Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, the valley and Firth of Clyde and his hometown of Glasgow; also, through his Keswick born wife, the Lake District.
Knox’s work contributes to the Romantic tradition of the 19th century whose artists and writers seized upon the dramatic features of the natural Scottish landscape. Sir Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake, publ. 1810, gave huge promotion to an area relatively accessible to tourists in search of the Romantic Sublime. Similarly, the Lake District had rich literary associations.
In this group of oils, painted during the 1820s, Knox captures the picturesque alongside quiet observation of people and their place. He is one of Scotland’s most significant and original landscape painters.
