A multitude of sailboats, barges and steamers crowd the River Thames as the sun descends over the Port of London. Many landmarks are visible through the famous London fog including the Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral. This energetic painting is the 19th-century British counterpart to the 17th-century Dutch marine pictures in the collection; two great maritime empires at the height of their power. A major point of departure from that tradition is the cropping of the boats at the edges of the composition, signalling the influence of photography.
A flock of sheep guided by a shepherd and his dog pick at vegetation hidden beneath the snow on a wayside verge. As a murder of crows takes flight, the dog pricks up its ears and stands alert as if to indicate some unseen disturbance or presence on the road ahead. Anton Mauve, who taught Vincent van Gogh, worked mainly in The Hague. This is a good illustration of how the Dutch traditions of winter scenes and pastoral subjects (both represented in the Picture Corridor) developed under the influence of French 19th-century Realist painting, resulting in a far more detailed interest in the lives and experiences of country labourers.
Mrs Greville hung this venerable image of her father, magnificently bearded and swathed in fur, in the dining-room of her Mayfair townhouse.
These two pictures illustrate McTaggart’s development away from sentimental anecdotes towards broader evocations of weather and landscape as his career progressed. Both works also attest to his abiding interest in the people and topography of the west coast of Scotland where he was raised, the son of a crofter.
