It is one of the works included in The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh’s exhibition Folk & Fancy (April 21-May 20), which features late 18th-20th century depictions of Scottish traditions, beliefs, customs and story-telling.
All Hallow’s Fair…, which is available for £95,000, is equally fanciful in its own way. It shows the event, which had ceased in 1813, against an Edinburgh townscape. Howe includes a number of the city’s major new buildings, including Nelson’s Monument and St James’s Church. Though it is not topographically accurate it combines the liveliness of a past tradition (the fair) against the rapid development of the landscape.
Also included in the show are romantic landscapes and mythological scenes as well as Will Maclean’s 1982 Black Priest’s Box, an imaginary toolkit for a travelling Bronze Age priest that includes model standing stones.
The exhibition runs alongside an exhibition of Hamish Fulton’s recent photographs of the Scottish Cairngorms.
