Jack Vettriano / Leonard Cohen | The Stranger song, 1967

"The Stranger Song" è uno dei brani più intensi e poeticamente complessi di Leonard Cohen, pubblicato originariamente nel 1967 come quarta traccia del suo iconico album di debutto, Songs of Leonard Cohen.

Il brano si distingue per l'ipnotico schema di fingerpicking sulla chitarra acustica e per un testo ricco di metafore legate al gioco d'azzardo, ai treni ed all'impossibilità di trovare un legame stabile.

When Christmas was prohibit

A 1931 edition of the Soviet magazine Bezbozhnik, published by the League of Militant Atheists, depicting an Orthodox Christian priest being forbidden to take home a tree for the celebration of Christmastide, which was banned under the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of state atheism.

While Christmas is celebrated globally, throughout history, various nations and regions have banned Christmas celebrations for religious, political, or ideological reasons.

These bans ranged from 17th-century religious reformations to 20th-century state-sponsored atheism.

Even today, in 2025, there are nations that maintain strict bans or significant restrictions on Christmas celebrations.

William Dyce | Pre-Raphaelite painter

Prof William Dyce FRSE RSA RA (1806-1864) pioneer of state art education in Great Britain.

Dyce studied at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh and the Royal Academy schools, London.

One of the first British students of early Italian Renaissance painting, he visited Italy in 1825 and 1827-1828, meeting in Rome a group of young German painters, the Nazarenes.

Leonard Cohen / Jack Vettriano | Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now

dance me on and on dance me very tenderly

and dance me very long we’re both of us beneath our love

we’re both of us above

dance me to the end of love

Iain Faulkner, 1973 | Figurative / Romantic painter

Scottish painter Iain Faulkner was born in Glasgow where he was raised and educated.

He graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996 with a BA (Honours) Degree in Fine Art.

From the onset of his professional career, the fashionable and trendy routes of contemporary and conceptual art, adopted by many of his peers, was not an option.

He chose instead to follow the more difficult and demanding path of figurative painting wherein clear, concise yardsticks of competence, draughtsmanship and painterly skills can be measured and judged, warts and all.

Scottish painter Jack Vettriano dies aged 73

Scottish painter Jack Vettriano (1951-2025), best known for his painting The Singing Butler, has died at the age of 73.

His publicist said the artist was found dead at his apartment in Nice, in the south of France, on Saturday, 1 March 2025.

It is understood there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

Joseph Farquharson | Victorian painter

Joseph Farquharson DL (4 May 1846 - 15 April 1935) was a Scottish painter, chiefly of landscapes, in Scotland often including animals.

He is most famous for his snowy winter landscapes, often featuring sheep and often depicting dawn or dusk.

He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and died at Finzean, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Nicknames include "'Frozen Mutton' Farquharson" and "The Painting Laird".

Joseph Farquharson | The Shortening Winter's Day is near a close, 1903

Jack Vettriano | The Singing Butler

The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano (1951-2025) is one such image which is now one of the most famous paintings of the last decade.

Few would not recognise the elegant sweep of limbs and the romantic theme of lovers dancing the night away in each other’s arms and this picture more than any other contemporary painting has captured the hearts and imagination of the public.

William Small | Victorian painter

William Small (1843-1929) was a Scottish illustrator and artist.

His works are held by art galleries in Leicester, Liverpool, London and Manchester and his illustrations in noted periodicals including: Once a week, Good Words, the The Graphic and Harpers.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes him as being considered the most successful illustrator of his time.

His style is typically Victorian.

Francis Henry Newbery | Glasgow School of Art

Francis Henry Newbery (1855-1946) or Fra Newbery was a painter and art educationist, best known as director of the Glasgow School of Art between 1885-1917.

Under his leadership the School developed an international reputation and was associated with the flourishing of Glasgow Style and the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle.

Newbery helped commission Mackintosh as architect for the now famous School of Art building and was actively involved in its design.

Peter Doig, 1959

Considered one of the most significant representational painters working today, Peter Doig has crafted a body of work that melds landscape, autobiography and personal style.

Doig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, but as a very young child his family lived for several years in Trinidad, before ultimately relocating to Canada.

Early in his career, he studied at various institutions in London, including the Wimbledon School of Art, Saint Martin’s School of Art and the Chelsea School of Art, where he eventually earned his MA in 1990.

Denise Findlay, 1973

Denise Findlay was born into a family of incredible artistic pedigree.

Her Great Great grandfather was Fra Newbery, founder and director of Glasgow School of Art.

Fra was influential to Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the commissioning of the G.S.A. building.

He was married to Jessie (Rowat) Newbery.

Jessie was credited as being the originator of the famous 'Glasgow Rose' motif through her beautiful embroidered collars, belts and dresses.

Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933)

Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933) was a Scottish painter of landscapes, flowers and foliage, with children.

He was a cousin of James Hornell. His contemporaries in the Glasgow Boys called him Ned Hornel.

Hornel was born in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia, of Scottish parents, and he was brought up and lived practically all his life in Scotland after his family moved back to Kirkcudbright in 1866.

Scottish Art History and Sitemap

Scottish art is the body of visual art made in what is now Scotland, or about Scottish subjects, since prehistoric times.

It forms a distinctive tradition within European art, but the political union with England has led its partial subsumation in British art.

The earliest examples of art from what is now Scotland are highly decorated carved stone balls from the Neolithic period.

From the Bronze Age there are examples of carvings, including the first representations of objects, and cup and ring marks.

Stanley Cursiter | Post-Impressionist painter

Bessie MacNicol (1869-1904)

Scottish painter Elizabeth MacNicol was born in Glasgow on the 17 July 1869 to a schoolmaster and his wife.

She attended Glasgow School of Art from 1887 until 1892 before travelling to Paris to study at the Academie Colarossi.

On her return to Scotland, MacNicol took on a studio in St Vincent Street and became closely associated with the circle of Glasgow Boys.

Dame Ethel Walker | Impressionist painter

Dame Ethel Walker DBE ARA (1861-1951) was a Scottish painter of portraits, flower-pieces, sea-pieces and decorative compositions.

From 1936, Walker was a member of The London Group.

Her work displays the influence of Impressionism, Puvis de Chavannes, Gauguin and Asian art.

Colin Fraser, 1956 | Egg tempera painter

Colin Fraser has long been established as one of the world's leading egg tempera painters.

Colin Fraser is a contemporary Scottish-born painter known for his detailed still lifes, landscapes, and interiors.

Fraser's use of egg-tempera gives his work a light-filled, translucent quality unequaled in other mediums, it is notoriously hard to control and seldom used by contemporary artists.

"It's a medium fraught with technical difficulties, but therein lies its charm.

Jack Morrocco, 1953 | Impressionist painter

Scottish painter Jack Morrocco was born Edinburgh. He studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee 1970-1974.

During the summer of 1973, Jack was selected to study at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath under the tutelage of Peter Blake.

On graduation he achieved a highly commended post diploma, the highest award possible at that time, he was also awarded the Farquhar Reid Travelling Scholarship 1975.

The scholarship enabled his to leave Scotland and he headed for Paris and Florence to study and he began a European love affair.

Duncan Grant | Post-Impressionist painter

Duncan Grant (1885-1978) was born at Rothiemurchus, Inverness-shire, the son of Major Bartle Grant and Ethel McNeill.

His childhood was spent in India.

He returned to Britain in 1893.

Although his family intended him to have an army career, he took up painting at the encouragement of the French painter Simon Bussy, entering the Westminster School of Art, London, in 1902.

Stanley Cursiter | Post-Impressionist painter

Stanley Cursiter (1887-1976) was an Orcadian artist who played an important role in introducing Post-impressionism and Futurism to Scotland.

He served as the keeper (1919-1930), then director (1930-1948), of the National Galleries of Scotland, and as HM Limner and Painter in Scotland (1948-1976).

He was born on 29 April 1887 at 15 East Road in Kirkwall, Orkney, the son of John Scott Cursiter and Mary Joan Thomson.

He was educated at Kirkwall Grammar School before moving to Edinburgh, where he studied at Edinburgh College of Art.