CRITIC’S CHOICE

The Edinburgh School comprised a group of eminent and divergent Edinburgh College of Art students and teachers, loosely brought together under the figure of Sir William Gillies – head of drawing and painting at ECA for 15 years from 1946, then college principal – whose ethos and aesthetic permeated the college in the mid-20th century. Anne Redpath, whose work is pictured right, Elizabeth Blackadder, John Houston, Robin Philipson and many others are the well known names that look out from yearbook and studio photos arranged in a display cabinet in the back room of the

Scottish Gallery, which often gave the first exhibition to promising ECA graduates.

There is breadth in this exhibition: more than anything the inked outlines of Gillies’ watercolour landscape West Gruinard Bay stressing the importance of drawing underlining his practice, and by extension that of the Edinburgh School itself.

Bright landscapes from Houston stand out on the crowded walls, as do Adam Bruce Thomson’s harbour scenes. There are tantalising snapshots of the artists in their studios, on holiday, larking about, which dot the exhibition and the accompanying print catalogue. But it is in the small room of drawings that treasure lies, particularly the drawings of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham – part of the so-called “Wider Circle” and so dubbed in her case for absconding to St Ives – and Redpath, each sketching out their evolving worlds, their unique and assured styles, whether found in a Fife farmhouse, a Cornish harbour or a marble quarry in Tuscany.

The Edinburgh School and Wider Circle, The Scottish Gallery, 16 Dundas Street, Edinburgh, 0131 558 1200, www.scottish-gallery.co.uk, until Jan 26, Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm