§ CHARLES OPPENHEIMER R.S.A., R.S.W. (BRITISH 1876-1961) IN THE EVENING LIGHT

§ CHARLES OPPENHEIMER R.S.A., R.S.W. (BRITISH 1876-1961) IN THE EVENING LIGHT Signed, oil on canvas (63.5cm x 76cm (25in x 30in)) Note: For a very similar but larger composition see My Garden at Twilight, property of the National Trust for Scotland, Broughton House, Kirkcudbright. Charles Oppenheimer is regarded as a quintessentially Scottish artist, although he was born in Oldham and did not settle north of the border until 1908. Oppenheimer trained under Walter Crane at Manchester School of Art, as well as in Italy. He was instinctively drawn to Scotland, although more to the lowlands and the pastoral landscapes of Kirkcudbrightshire, than to the rugged Highlands. Famously his paintings often depict the same view at different times of year. He was a keen fisherman and had a talent for capturing the fall of light on water. He painted landscapes and townscapes, and also designed a number of iconic posters for British Rail. Oppenheimer was elected RSW in 1912, ARSA in 1927 and RSA in 1934. The picture offered here is a view of Oppenheimer's house at 14 High Street, Kirkcudbright, where he lived between 1908 and 1931. He rented the house from E.A. Hornel, who lived next door in Broughton House (now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland). By the time that Oppenheimer settled there, Kirkcudbright had long been a centre of artistic activity. Artists had been drawn there since the 1880s, and by 1900 the little town was attracting artists from Glasgow and Edinburgh including E.A. Walton, A.S. Hartrick, James Lawton Wingate, David Gauld and D.Y. Cameron. Oppenheimer moved there in 1908, and, having served with the Royal Artillery during the Great War, returned to Kirkcudbright at its close, finding many new friends. Among them were the book illustrator Jessie M. King and her husband, E.A. Taylor who, having lived in Kirkcudbright before the war, had returned there in 1915. From 1929 the crime writer Dorothy L. Sayers and her husband also rented a studio in The High Street, next door to Oppenheimer, and became good friends. Oppenheimer painted several similar views of his home at number 14. One now hangs in Oldham Art Gallery and another in Broughton House itself. While the Broughton picture shows the house at twilight with the evening sun reflecting off the windows, that in Oldham shows the same scene on a bright, sunny day in which the whitewashed walls seem to belong more to the Midi than to Kirkcudbright.