Constable work on show at Smith

A painting by John Constable was among the works which went on show at the Smith Art Gallery and Museum in Stirling, the Observer of September 1951 reported.

The famous English landscape artist’s canvas entitled `The Vale of Dedham’ was part of a collection of works from the National Gallery of Scotland touring galleries north of the border.

Nearly half of the paintings on view were from Scottish artists including David Allan, a native of Alloa; Aberdeen artist William Dyce; Edinburgh painters Andrew Geddes, Robert Scott Lauder and William Homes Lizzars, and Sir Daniel Macnee, who was born in Fintry.

Part of Scotland’s contribution to the Festival of Britain, the exhibition had drawn large crowds when it visited Dundee, Perth, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen.

Constable’s painting, dated 1828 and depicting Dedham Vale on the EssexSuffolk border, was at the time value at £25,000 (about £750,000 in today’s money).

It was, said the Observer, worth travelling many miles to admire.

However, the citizens of Stirling did not seem to share the writer’s enthusiasm, and the town’s Provost James Plank bemoaned the small turnout at the exhibition’s opening ceremony. Only 18 people were sufficiently interested to attend.

The Observer said: `Though the number of people with sufficient intelligence to appreciate such an exhibition must be appreciably smaller than the hordes who troop to football matches in downpours or stand shivering in cinema queues, this is no reason for such a poor turnout on an official occasion.’.

Ex-town clerk John Clink, presiding at the opening ceremony, remarked: `If a thing is sufficiently expensive, the ladies see that the men go.

`If it is moderately expensive, the men go under their own steam. If it is practically free, you have almost to offer a prize as an inducement for people to come.’