20. Apr, 2022
John Smart's caricature experiences of painting in the Highlands.
This week I have added a page which displays the whole of John Smart's small book Ye Life and Troubles of Ane Artist in the Highlands of Scotland. Published by John Davidson in Leith, probably c.1890, it appears to be very scarce, with only one other copy listed online, at Aberdeen University.
Smart (1838 - 1899) depicts in caricature style the usual problems a tourist in Scotland might expect, chief amongst them, midges and rain. He was a landscape artist of some note, and an active member of the Edinburgh artistic community from the 1870s onwards. The experiences he describes seem to have taken place somewhere to the west of Fort William.