A Scotch Highland Village by Andrew Donaldson (1790-1846). Oil on canvas. H 48.3 x W 61 cm. Archibald McLellan Collection. Accession no. 243. Purchased, 1856. Image credit: Glasgow Life Museums, via the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre and Art UK. Image released on the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (CC BY-NC-ND).
Light beautifully illuminates the thatched cottage or homestead (or croft) on the edge of the village, with the usual signs of village life around it: a man on horseback coming to the house, women and a child just outside it, chickens on the unmade road, more people and buildings (including a church, its tower partly visible at the top of the road) in the distance, all nestled at the foot of the hills. It is the sort of scene Donaldson would often have encountered on his visits to the Highlands, and clearly took pleasure in.
Donaldson, whose early work tended towards the topographical, is described by Julian Halsby as one of the "comparatively minor figures" among the Scottish watercolorists, who nevertheless participated in the movement towards "broader sweeps of the brush, and a growing interest in nature, its moods and its details" (34). He was born near Belfast and did visit Northern Ireland later in life, but had come to Glasgow as a child, where he first took up his father's calling as a spinner (Halby 48-49). However, injury mandated a change of career for the young man, and luckily he was talented enough to establish himself as an artist there. He showed his work (nearly always watercolours) at the Royal Scottish Academy and elsewhere, and took pupils. Among those who benefitted from his skill as a drawing master were the future noted botanical illustrator, Walter Hood Fitch. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Bibliography
Halsby, Julian. Scottish Watercolours, 1740-1940. London: Batsford, 1986.
A Scottish Highland Village. Art UK. Web. 26 November 2025.
Created 26 November 2025