Victorian Watercolour OF Highland River In Spate By Sam Bough RSA (1822-1878) In Ornate Gilt Frame, Circa 1850

Victorian watercolour of Highland river in spate by Sam Bough (1822-1878). Signed bottom left. Mounted in ornate gilt frame. Label verso for Aiken Dott. Circa 1850.

Sam Bough was one of the most influential and prolific Scottish landscape painters of the 19th century. Born in Carlisle in 1822, he was a self-taught artist who spent much of his career working in Scotland.

After working in Manchester as a scene painter in the Theatre Royal he moved to Glasgow to work at the New Princes Theatre. during this time he pursued his artistic painting part time in the evening until he was successful enough to move to painting full-time. Bough‘s reputation as a topographical and landscape painter grew during the 1850‘s, and by the time he resettled in Edinburgh he had established himself as a successful landscape artist. Whilst living in the capital he created some of his most important paintings.

Bough was as successful a painter in both oils and watercolours, and was committed to depicting a wide variety of landscape views and effects, urban and rural, bright days and dark storms. He was recognised for his spontaneity, loose technique and interest in capturing fleeting atmospheric effects, particularly cloud formations and weather.