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| William McTaggart Casts of antique sculptures ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
William McTaggart (1835-1910) – Scottish artist, born on the Mull of Kintyre. He returned there frequently from his studio in Glasgow, and later from his home in Broomieknow just outside Edinburgh. He trained in Edinburgh at the Trustees' Academy, and enjoyed early success when elected as an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy aged twenty-four. McTaggart's land and seascapes reflect his fascination with nature and man's relationship with it. His bold colours and vigorous brushwork find parallels in Impressionist painting, although essentially form part of a distinct Scottish tradition. They also echo qualities in paintings by Constable and Turner, whom he admired.
– based on biographical notes from the National Galleries of Scotland
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| William McTaggart Cast of the so-called Dying Alexander ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Cast of the Apollino ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Cast of the Venus de Medici ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
By the middle of the nineteenth century when McTaggart was undergoing the standardized Academy training, casts of canonical statues like those above had been copied by every generation of European art students for several hundred years. The Venus de Milo, directly below, though now so famous, did not enter this canon until the 1820s, when it was first discovered and put on display at the Louvre. Similarly, the Parthenon sculptures (among them the Illisus, pictured below the Venus) were virtually unknown to the Renaissance and Baroque art worlds, and did not begin to establish their present fame until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when they were salvaged from the neglect and deliberate damage they had long suffered in Greece, and brought to England.
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| William McTaggart Cast of the Venus de Milo ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Cast of Ilissus figure from Parthenon pediment ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Cast of figure of Christ from Michelangelo's Pietà ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
After a long apprenticeship drawing casts, students were typically admitted to the Life Room and there encouraged to draw intensively for another long period from nude models, as below.
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| William McTaggart Académie ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Académie ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Académie ca. 1850-60 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Académie ca. 1850-60 oil on paper, mounted on panel National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Académie ca. 1850-60 oil on paper, mounted on panel National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Académie ca. 1850-60 oil over black chalk on paper National Galleries of Scotland |
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| William McTaggart Académie ca. 1850-60 oil over black chalk on millboard National Galleries of Scotland |