Storm on the Firth

Storm on the Firth 1874 watercolour by Sam Bough (1822-1878).

This watercolour shows men with their horses and carts battling against the elements possibly at Canty Bay in East Lothian, at the entrance to the Firth of Forth near North Berwick in Scotland. It shows men, with their backs to the viewer, leading their horse-drawn carts across the foreshore while a storm is raging. To their right the waves crash over the rocks sending clouds of spray inland. In the distance the far shore of the firth is just visible through thick storm clouds.

Bough’s move to Edinburgh in 1856 enabled him to explore the Forth estuary and the harbours and fishing villages of East Lothian and Fife which became some of his favourite sketching grounds. The quality of light, changeable weather and the fisherfolk attracted Bough who found fine sunny days dull and uninspiring.

This is a typical example of Bough’s highly successful marine watercolours. 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).