Views from the Scott Monument

Below are a series of four watercolour and pencil sketches looking across Edinburgh from the Scott Monument made in September and October 1986 by Richard de Marco.

These four views were commissioned from the artist with funding from the Jean F. Watson Bequest for the City Art Centre collection. They compliment the four watercolour paintings by Joseph W. Ebsworth dated 1845 to 1847 also in the City Art Centre collection.

North is a view looking up Saint David Street, past Saint Andrews Square towards the coast of Fife. The main building in the foreground to the left is Jenners, the department store.

South is a view over the railway line to the Old Town and beyond to the Borders.

East is a view looking along Princes Street toward the Balmoral Hotel, Calton Hill and Arthurs Seat.

West is a view down Princes Street, with gardens in the foreground left, the Royal Scottish Academy and the National Gallery of Scotland with Edinburgh Castle on the hill behind. Above the Royal Scottish Academy, a canopied marquee tent covers the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens west. To the right the mass of buildings of the NewTown stretch into the horizon.

About the Artist

Richard de Marco was born in Edinburgh in 1930 and studied at Edinburgh School of Art (1949 to 1953). He taught at Duns Scotus Academy, was director of The Traverse Art Gallery and later the Richard DeMarco Gallery in 1966. He has done many public commissions and is an energetic Arts entrepreneur.