Turner painting of Edinburgh shown in the city for the first time

The Turner watercolours are a regular fixture in the National Galleries of Scotland calendar – the specific conditions of Sir Henry Vaughan’s bequest mean they can be shown only once a year, in January, when the light is lowest. However, this year, to mark the artist’s 250th anniversary, curators have arranged a once-in-a-lifetime exchange with the Turners gifted by Vaughan to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.

The paintings, being shown in the Royal Scottish Academy building, include ‘Edinburgh from Below Arthur’s Seat’, painted on the artist’s first visit to the city in 1801.

“This was one of things people got really excited about when we were discussing the exchange,” says Charlotte Topsfield, senior curator, British drawings and prints, at NGS. “It’s a fantastic watercolour and quite an unusual viewpoint.

“The usual place for painting from Arthur’s Seat is from St Anthony’s Chapel with Holyrood Palace in the foreground. Turner chose the far end of Salisbury Crags, looking at the city from the South West with the curve of the Crags framing the view.

“Maybe he chose that to get interesting light effects. This is a transitional period in Turner’s career when he was moving from quite precise topographical drawings to a freer and looser approach, focussing on the atmosphere, the conditions of light and weather. Here, he does that fantastically. I think he was fascinated by Edinburgh. He trained as an architectural draftsman so he would have loved drawing the details on the buildings. In this painting, he’s able to work with the light and the atmosphere but you can still make out the details of the buildings.”

The city and its environs continues to inspire artists today, including those showing in the 144th Open Annual Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour (RSW). This exhibition – the leading showcase of contemporary painting in water-based media in Scotland – shares the RSA Upper Galleries with Turner in January. Three artists in the exhibition talk about their relationship with the city.

Ann Cowan worked as a solicitor for nine years before becoming an artist, and became a member of the RSW in 2024. She describes Edinburgh as “a constant source of inspiration to me”.

“I came to Edinburgh when I was 18 to study Law, based at Old College. That was a stunning setting in itself and it features quite regularly in my work. In 2010, after taking a break from Law to have my children, I did short courses at Edinburgh College of Art in mixed media and cityscapes, and went on from there.

“You paint what you know and what you love – for me that’s the city, the architecture. My dad was an architect so I suppose my love of buildings goes back to that. Any time I visit a city which has an interesting skyline, I feel inspired to paint, but I think I’ll always come back to Edinburgh which is my first love.

“Drawing is a really important part of it for me, capturing the details of the buildings, but only just enough so you know what you’re looking at. I feel that too much detail can detract from what I’m trying to do, I want the painting and the colour to be just as important. I’m always trying to achieve that balance.

“Using mixed media gives me lots of variety, I can build up layers in acrylic then use pens and pencils on top. I’m always pushing myself and trying new things. I try to capture Edinburgh in a way that’s joyous, I hope the colour I use and the way I use it conveys the fact I love the city.”

Allan Black, from Houston near Paisley, returned to painting after taking early retirement from teaching. He makes regular trips to Edinburgh, which is one of his favourite subjects and has become a regular exhibitor at the RSW.

“I come to Edinburgh every week or so and always go straight up Calton Hill. I started by painting the classic view looking towards the castle and then moved on to other angles. This painting is from Calton Hill looking down Leith Walk to the Forth and Fife in the distance.

“On a clear winter day there is amazing yellow sunshine on the North of the city. I like the way Leopold Place and London Road make a diamond shape which becomes the focus of the painting.

“I’ve painted panoramas of the city from various places and I’m always wondering where to go for the next one. I’m still finding views of Edinburgh I didn’t know existed. You can always go back and find something different.

“Edinburgh’s got everything, it’s a city but it’s got a villagey feel about it. I like the fact that there’s a park in the middle of it with Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags, and I like the Old Town, the landmarks – everything except the shopping centre at the top of Leith Walk, I try to avoid that!

“A painting like this can take a couple of months. It’s important to get the details right. It’s not realism but everything has to be in the right place. If you’re painting a cityscape, you can’t invent a gap site if you make a mistake. People have been known to complain that there are not enough windows in their house.”

Pascale Rentsch is originally from Switzerland but moved to Scotland to study at Edinburgh College of Art in the mid 1990s. Since winning a prize at the RSW in 2021, she has become well known for her expressive watercolour landscapes of East Lothian, and will have a solo exhibition at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh in June 2025.

“When I was a student I had clear ideas of what I wanted to do, but life happened and I became the mother of three boys. Lockdown was a chance to get back to painting, and I would take my bike to places near my home in East Lothian. I love the landscape here, the East Lothian coast and the Lammermuirs. I’ve painted views of Edinburgh from Longniddry, looking along the coast.

“In Scotland, the light is just magical. In Switzerland, we don’t have that light, and everything is quite pretty and well kept. Here, the landscape is more raw, you can feel the wildness. I can be 20 minutes away from home and feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere.

“I always paint outdoors, working with what the landscape makes me feel. I’m in awe of what I see, and I never know exactly how I’m going to capture that on a piece of paper. I like working with the weather, the more unpredictable the better. The weather affects the light and you react to that, in the moment. The landscape becomes a moving dance in front of you.

“Watercolour is a very spontaneous medium, which I love. If it’s really cold, the paint starts to freeze and I have to use a palette knife to spread it, on sunny days it dries very quickly, if it’s a wet day the rain moves the watercolour around on the page. I love when the landscape has a fingerprint on what is happening in the work.”

​Turner in January: Ireland’s Vaughan Bequest is in the Royal Scottish Academy building until 31 January. The 144th Open Annual Exhibition of the RSW is in the same building, tomorrow until 5 February and online at www.rsw.org.uk