The Cuillin Hills, Skye

Paul Jacob Naftel

1870–91 · Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite · Drawings and Prints

Born on the Channel Island of Guernsey, Naftel worked as a drawing master, sending works to London to establish a reputation. He joined the Old Water-Colour Society (formally the Society of Painters in Water-Colours) in 1856, traveled through Britain and Italy, and eventually moved his family to London. A new focus on Scottish landscape after 1865 responded to growing public interest in the region, stimulated by Queen Victoria’s purchase of Balmoral Castle. The bright tonality in this sheet relies on new chemically based pigments, used to describe the rounded granite Red Cuillin Hills along a rocky valley. Beyond, we glimpse the jagged, taller peaks of the Black Cuillin Hills. These two geologically distinct ranges shape the Isle of Skye, in the Inner Hebrides.

Artist

Paul Jacob Naftel

Date

1870–91

Medium

Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Friends of Drawings and Prints Gifts, 2022