The Edinburgh School


The Edinburgh School is a group of 20th century artists connected with Edinburgh. They share a connection through Edinburgh [College of Art], where most studied and worked together during or soon after the First [World War]. As friends and colleagues, they discussed painting and were influenced by one another's work. They were bound together as members of Edinburgh-based exhibition bodies: the Royal Scottish Academy, Society of Scottish Artists and the Royal [Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour]. They predominantly painted still life and Scottish landscapes, and shared an interest in working both in oil and watercolour.
Art critic Giles Sutherland, writing in The Times, has suggested: "The work of the Edinburgh School is characterised by virtuoso displays in the use of paint, vivid and often non-naturalistic colour and themes such as still-life, seascape and landscape."
The following are generally thought of as Edinburgh School painters.
Some other painters associated with Edinburgh may also be called Edinburgh School artists, or a 'new generation' of the Edinburgh School.