Joseph Farquharson R.A., “The Painting Laird”

The oil paintings of Joseph Farquharson R.A. (1846-1935), the 12th Laird of Finzean, draw much of their inspiration from the landscapes surrounding Finzean. Born in Edinburgh, he first exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy when 15, studied under Peter Graham R.A. and at the Trustees’ Academy, before spending four winters in the 1880s under the tutelage of Carolus Duran at his atelier in Paris. Influenced by the Barbizon School and the Impressionists, famed for their work ‘en plein air’, Farquharson adapted their methods to the harsher northern climate by building a number of heated painting huts throughout Finzean. Safe in their relative warmth, he could observe the effects of a dying day's light on snow and trees, sometimes waiting weeks to capture a fleeting atmospheric condition on canvas.

During his lifetime, 290 of his pictures were exhibited at the Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy. His work is best known for his snow scenes, his faithful capture of the distant glow of an evening sky across a winter landscape, scenes filled with a quiet stillness, broken only by the beat of a crow's wing or soft tread of a roe deer through chill winter air. In this world, nature rules supreme, man's only trace his weary tracks beaten through snow and mingled with those of the sheep he has led on to pasture, the cottages around the stream's bend bowed beneath a frosty blanket, yet hinting at warmth and companionship beside the hearth.