A rarely-seen painting of Arran by artist John Maclauchlan Milne is going up for auction in Edinburgh.
Auction house Lyon & Turnbull has several paintings by the artist – known as the fifth Scottish Colourist – for sale in its forthcoming Scottish Paintings and Sculpture sale on December 7.
Maclauchlan Milne first visited Arran in 1939 and ended up staying at High Corrie. One of the paintings for sale, Cornfield, North Sannox, dates from 1940, when he first visited Arran. It is on sale with an estimated guide price of £10k to £15k.
The painting depicts a location a few miles north of Thirlestane and the boarding house in the hamlet of Corrie, where Maclauchlan Milne stayed in 1939. In a sun-kissed image, the artist realised a favoured scene, when a good harvest has been completed and the countryside looks at its plentiful best.
Milne was the son of traditional landscape artist Joseph Milne and, though his very early work is indebted to his father’s influence, he soon turned his attention to developments on the continent. Though a generation younger than his fellow Colourist compatriots in France, Maclauchlan Milne followed exuberantly in their tradition, earning himself the moniker of the fifth Colourist.
Alice Strang, senior specialist modern and contemporary art with Lyon & Turnbull said: “After spending much of the 1920s in the south of France, Maclauchlan Milne turned his attention to the Scottish landscape in the 1930s. He first visited Arran in 1939, the year in which he painted Cornfield, North Sannox, Arran. It shows how he brought the sunshine of the Mediterranean to the island in a favoured scene, when a good harvest has been completed and the countryside looks at its plentiful best.”
His ties with Scotland remained strong and ultimately he was to settle on Arran, making his home near Corrie harbour. The effect of the brilliant French light never deserted Milne and his depictions of Arran are virtually always of idyllically bright days, featuring white-washed cottages, wind-ruffled blossom trees and turquoise bays. Milne’s form by this period is often experimentally free and unfettered; the foliage and proportions of the house almost swirling with movement and expression, alluding, perhaps, to the work of one of his greatest influences, Vincent Van Gogh.
John Maclauchlan Milne’s biographer Maurice Millar has explained that he is known to have worked in the North Sannox area of the island in 1939, not least through the acquisition by Glasgow Corporation of the related painting North Glen Sannox in 1940. Moreover, the backboard of Cornfield, North Sannox, bears a label from the Dundee framers Fraser & Son, suggesting it was framed in the city before the artist moved to Arran in 1940. It may well have been included in Maclauchlan Milne’s last studio exhibition in Dundee, held in April that year, which the press reported comprised mostly of “scenes in Arran and Iona”.
The sale is taking place at Lyon & Turnbull auction house in Edinburgh and online on Thursday December 7.
The painting Cornfield, North Sannox by John Maclauchlan Milne. NO_B47paintng01_23_north_sannox