A watercolour view of Edinburgh from the side of St Margaret's Loch at sunset, looking west. Signed in monogram and dated 'WHP 1862'. Curved top corners.

Paton, younger brother of Sir Joseph Noël, chiefly painted landscapes, mostly of Scotland. This atmospheric view shows Edinburgh at sunset, looking west over St Margaret’s Loch and Holyrood Park, with St Anthony’s Chapel to the left, towards the east front of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Holyrood Abbey, with Calton Hill, the National Monument and the Nelson Monument in the distance. The use of touches of bodycolour enabled Paton to build up a highly detailed finish in the foreground. The strong violet hue of the sky suffuses the entire scene, the ‘favourite purple tints’ often used by the artist in sunset scenes. Queen Victoria commissioned this view of Holyroodhouse as ‘she used to see it on approaching it from the Station’.

This watercolour was originally mounted in View Album IX.Queen Victoria and Prince Albert compiled nine View Albums during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.

Text adapted from D. Clarke and V. Remington, Scottish Artists 1750-1900: From Caledonia to the Continent (2015).