Basil Skinner: ‘A Scottish Catalyst: The Paintings of David Allan’, “Country Life”, 19th August 1965

In the introduction to his 1965 Country Life magazine article, Basil Skinner comments:

“TO label David Allan with such epithets as ‘the Scottish Hogarth’ or ‘the Scottish Zoffany,’ is completely to misunderstand his contribution to the development of painting in Scotland. Allan was no mere stylistic copyist, neither was he simply a follower of other artists’ successful fashions. He was an experimenter, an explorer in the subject matter of paint, and as such his influence upon the development of painting modes in Scotland in the late 18th century was above all that of a catalyst.”

For further information, please see www.basilskinner.com