Painting
Maker & role
Reverend Robert G Fraser (b.1832, d.1905), Painter
Production date
1869
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Object detail
Title
Untitled (View of a Scottish tower house: Castle Lochranza, Arran)
Production place
Collection
Measurements
0 - Whole, H: 52.5 x W: 94.6cm (H: 525 x W: 946mm)
Subject person
Subject Place
Signature & marks
Registration number applied verso:LHC; signed R G Fraser LRHC
Credit line
Gift, NSW Department of Planning and Environment, 1987
Rouse Hill Estate Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Rouse Hill Estate Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Rouse Hill Estate Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Rouse Hill Estate Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
View of a Scottish tower house, Castle Lochranza, Arran by Rev. Robert G Fraser (1832-1905), Scotland, 1869.
Description
View of a coastal loch with a castle (Scottish tower house) ruin in silhouette on a tidal promontory with 2 fishing boats (I beached, 1 under sail). The promontory curves to the left where it joins a beach that wraps around the foreground. The painting is proportioned approximately 1:2 height: width, and the frame is decorated with a border of anthemions in thin gilt gesso. Substantial loss of painted surface caused by past water damage.
While tower houses share a common arrangement and Frasers work is untitled, this can be clearly identified as castle Locharnza, Arran. First built in the late 13th century, Lochranza saw active use until the 18th, after which it was abandoned and became picturesquely ruinous.
This is one of several paintings of Scottish scenes located in the back hall at Rouse Hill by the artist Rev. Robert G. Fraser. In July 1868 Bessie Buchanan (later Rouse) and her parents William and Elizabeth who were then staying with Fraser’s father the Rev. Robert William Fraser in Edinburgh (Bessie and Robert William were cousins), visited an exhibition of his paintings. When the Buchanans left Britain Fraser Snr. wrote to his uncle following up on an offer he had made to take several of his son's views back to Australia with him, with the hope of promoting sales to other expatriate Scots. From 1868-88 Fraser exhibited 20 paintings in 13 shows at the Scottish Royal Academy, all of Scottish landscapes.
While tower houses share a common arrangement and Frasers work is untitled, this can be clearly identified as castle Locharnza, Arran. First built in the late 13th century, Lochranza saw active use until the 18th, after which it was abandoned and became picturesquely ruinous.
This is one of several paintings of Scottish scenes located in the back hall at Rouse Hill by the artist Rev. Robert G. Fraser. In July 1868 Bessie Buchanan (later Rouse) and her parents William and Elizabeth who were then staying with Fraser’s father the Rev. Robert William Fraser in Edinburgh (Bessie and Robert William were cousins), visited an exhibition of his paintings. When the Buchanans left Britain Fraser Snr. wrote to his uncle following up on an offer he had made to take several of his son's views back to Australia with him, with the hope of promoting sales to other expatriate Scots. From 1868-88 Fraser exhibited 20 paintings in 13 shows at the Scottish Royal Academy, all of Scottish landscapes.
Accession number
R89/19
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