The Fellah from Kinneh
October is Black History Month, and today’s image is one of the three surviving portraits of black men by Thomas Stuart Smith, artist and founder of the Smith Art Gallery and Museum. The Fellah from Kinneh, or Qena, north of Luxor on the Nile delta was a native Egyptian who
William Gear (1915 – 1997)
William Gear was the son of a coal miner from Methil in Fife, where he grew up. He attended Edinburgh College of Art, 1932 – 1936. A travelling scholarship took him the Paris where he studied with Ferdinand Leger. He won a Festival of Britain purchase prize in 1951 and
Loch Earn from the East, McNeil MacLeay, (1806 – 1883)
The painting featured here is a recent purchase made possible by the Stirling Common Good Fund and the National Fund for Acquisitions. It is by the eminent artist and Stirling resident McNeil MacLeay (1806 – 1883) and was painted in 1868. The title, in the artist’s hand, is inscribed on
Leaving for the Front, The Great War
The photograph shows a scene in Stirling Station all too common a hundred years ago as battalion after battalion left Stirling, either for further training or for service in the Great War. Families gathered on the platform to say farewell, possibly for the last time. Stirling Station has never been
Poppies by William MacTaggart
At present, the Stirling Smith mounts between 14 and 20 temporary exhibitions each year to attract return visits and maintain interest. The painting by the eminent Scottish artist Sir William MacTaggart (1903-1981) was purchased from a very brief exhibition on contemporary Scottish art in the Smith in the summer of
Stirling Bridge by Iona Leishman
11 September is the 718th anniversary of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, the battle which William Wallace and Andrew de Moray won, against all the odds, and an English army of invasion. This small, spirited work of 2010 was gifted to the Smith collections by Friend of the Smith Moira
Portrait by Alasdair Gray
The great Scottish artist and writer Alasdair Gray has a dramatization of his ground – breaking novel Lanark at the Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre this month. After an accident in June, the artist is still critically ill in hospital, and as we wish him a good recovery, we feature one of
Cards from the Front – World War 1
The exhibition ‘A Stirling 100’ remembering the impact World War one had on Stirling, opens at the Stirling Smith on Friday at 11am,2015, and all are welcome to attend. The exhibition from the University of Stirling, with the support of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, features photographs of the parish
Ronald A Muirhead, Sculptor by James Wallace Robert Orr
Ronald A Muirhead (1930 – 1989) was an artist and gallery owner who enriched the lives of the people of Stirlingshire, and his portrait by James Robert Wallace Orr, in the Stirling Smith collections, reflects his artistic interests. The sculpture on the table is his own, and the view into
The Glorious 12th, John Bucknell Russell (1819 – 1893)
To mark ‘the Glorious 12th’, the traditional start of the shooting season in Scotland, today’s painting from the Smith collections is a still life by artist John Bucknell Russell (1819 – 1893). It was gifted to the Smith by Mr Watt of Stirling in 1932. At one time, such paintings