Cadzow Burn

Cadzow Burn 1856 watercolour by Sam Bough (1822-1878).

View of Cadzow Burn in Cazow Forest near Hamilton, south of Glasgow in Scotland. In this woodland scene in autumn beneath a canopy of trees labourers lead horses pulling a cart loaded with logs across a wide shallow river the far bank of which is formed by a rocky outcrop. Bough moved to Hamilton south of Glasgow in 1851 and discovered Cadzow forest nearby where he painted the oak trees, river Avon and ruins of Cadzow Castle. He produced some of his best work here over the next three years. As a mature artist, Bough excelled as a watercolourist, and became the leader in Scotland. Watercolour suited his temperament. He painted swiftly, applying the paint thinly to give a transparent, light and airy feel to his compositions. As his style developed he began using deeper colours and treated light and shadow more boldly.

Bough is one of Carlisle’s most important 19th century artists. Despite settling in Edinburgh, Bough kept strong links with his native city. He became a leading Victorian landscape painter and gained a national reputation for his landscape and marine watercolours. He particularly liked to paint Scotland’s east coast, the western Isles and the Lake District. Bough was prolific and exhibited hundreds of works. His work was popular with the public and art collectors, making him wealthy. Bough is represented by eighty-eight works in the collection including oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and sketchbooks. We also have Bough’s palette, brushes, pipe, tankard, tobacco box and a terracotta figure of the artist by William Grant Stevenson (1842–1919).