JOSEPH MILNE (SCOTTISH 1857-1911)
A BUSY HARBOUR SCENE
Signed and dated '91, oil on canvas
30.5cm x 38cm (12in x 15in)
Sailing ships and fishing boats in harbours were recurring themes throughout Joseph Milne’s career as a landscape artist from 1880 to 1911, particularly in the early 1890s. His maritime paintings depicted locations ranging from the River Thames and the River Tyne to Tayport, Perth and Leith; to Tarbert, Loch Fyne and the River Clyde on the west coast; and barges at Dordrecht in the 1880s. Many of his shipping pictures now have generic titles, with no particular location specified. When he painted this picture in 1891, he also produced another of sailing ships in Tayport Harbour.Joseph Milne first exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1877 at the age of 18, and at the Royal Glasgow Institute in 1880. He exhibited annually until 1902, before leaving Scotland in 1903. He exhibited seven pictures at the Royal Academy in London (1887 to 1908). His final Royal Glasgow Institute exhibit in 1902 was of Leith Harbour (no. 19a). Joseph was succeeded by his son, the artist John Maclauchlan Milne, R.S.A. (1885 – 1957).We are grateful to Maurice Millar, author of The Missing Colourist: The Search for John Maclauchlan Milne RSA (privately published in 2022 and available via The Missing Colourist website) for writing this text.