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This fine painting by the English artist James Barret is one of a pair that he painted of the Stornoway townscape in 1798. These are the two earliest known oil paintings of a Western Isles landscape. The artist depicts the harbour at sunset from Gallows Hill. The topography of the bay can be surveyed to good effect from here. The painting provides a window, through which we can see late eighteenth-century Stornoway. The town was being developed as an important fishing port by its Mackenzie proprietors. The artist shows the harbour busy with fishing boats. Seaforth Lodge, the island residence of the Mackenzie proprietors, overlooks the town. The lodge was demolished in 1846 to be replaced by Lews Castle, which was built by Sir James Matheson when he purchased the island estate.
Museum nan Eilean
Stornoway
Title
The Village of Stornoway with a Shooting Lodge, on the Isle of Lewes
Date
1798
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 122 x W 183 cm
Accession number
2006.1
Acquisition method
purchased
Work type
Painting
