A painting of Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street will feature in Part I of Bonhams' Scottish Sale on August 20, after being rediscovered in a family collection.
 The work has been in a family collection since purchase and never exhibited |
The work has been with the same family since its initial purchase back in the 1860s, shortly after its creation, and has never been exhibited. It was painted by the Carlisle-born artist Samuel Bough, who began his career as a theatre scene painter before settling in Scotland in 1855.
Bough had a reputation as both an inconsistent and temperamental artist, making quality pieces of his a rare find, although his best works are regarded as masterpieces. In a fitting tribute to Bough following his death, his good friend Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: "A painting by Bough was an act of dashing conduct like a capture of a fort in war."
Bonhams' Chris Bickley commented: "Bough's memory was legendary, particularly for cloud and atmospheric effects, and these are put to full use in Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street in the light summer sky, foliage, dappling sunlight and steam from the trains arriving at Waverley Station.
"The deft touch and spontaneity of the foreground in particular, describing elegant figures perambulating and carriages on the cobbles, have much in common with Pre-Impressionists such as Eugene Boudin."
A huge canvas measuring over 5 feet in height, it will sell with a £100,000-150,000 estimate. Also featuring in the Scottish Sale will be one of the earliest portraits of the national poet Robert Burns, which is expected to bring £5,000-7,000.
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