SPOTTING A public investigation on the National Galleries of Scotland’s website in 2006, one of Inveraray’s local historians and History Society member, Ken MacTaggart decided to try to help identify the actual location of William Dyce’s painting titled “Shirrapburn Loch”.
“Shirrapburn Loch”, is a typical Scottish scene in 1830s, by William Dyce (1806-1864) who was born in Aberdeen and loved painting Scottish scenery. He was known for his accuracy of detail and painted a range of different subjects, including many well known paintings, such as Madonna and Child,(the painter Titian as a youth), as well as many biblical subjects such as Flight into Egypt and Man of Sorrows, which was in fact Jesus in the wilderness depicted in typically Argyll scenery.
Ken walks regularly in the Scottish hills and was interested in trying to help identify the scenery in the painting. The title of the painting was thought to be linked to the area around Loch Shira. Questions arose as to whether it was a sea loch or fresh water, any familiarity to the surrounding hills, where were the rocky crags with oak trees on top, close to a section of an arch showing where a road would have been and with a small burn flowing into the loch, but probably not tidal as there was no seaweed shown.
One day, en route home via Loch Lomond, Ken noticed a familiar outline of hills across the loch close to the view from Stuckgowan House. On closer inspection from the beach, he identified similarities to the craggy outcrop with oak trees on top, Stuckgowan Burn flowed into the loch in the same place shown in the painting and hidden in the undergrowth was the remains of an arch.
The question of no visible distant mountains, as shown in the painting, became clearer when similar mountain outlines could be seen from a different angle on Stuckgowan Estate. As Dyce was friendly with James Valentine, well known for publishing postcards and distorting original scenes to suit the subject, it is likely Dyce also used some ‘artistic licence’ to enhance his own paintings and make them more aesthetically pleasing.
The title also caused confusion but, when “Stuc” is written in the old copperplate style of writing, it can be seen as “Shir” and, using Dyce’s artistic licence, the name of Shirrapburn Loch could have been derived.
The National Galleries of Scotland accepted Ken’s clever detective work and his explanation of how different elements had been assembled into one painting to form a more dramatic image, and have published it as “View of Loch Lomond (previously known as Shirrapburn Loch)” on their website.
The quality of Ken’s presentation into his research made a fitting farewell to the History Society’s final meeting of the season.
