'The Glasgow Boys' in the Drents Museum

Another exhibition I enjoyed seeing in the Drents Museum last Friday was "The Glasgow Boys". This British group of some twenty highly diverse painters of roughly the same age were inspired by French impressionists and the Barbizon and Hague School artists. They challenged the establishment and set out across Scotland and France to paint.

Old Willie - The Village Worthy (1886)

Oil on canvas by James Guthrie

(From the comments next to the painting:)
"For years Guthrie endeavoured to show rural life in large paintings depicting several figures. When this failed, he limited himself to a single figure in a landscape. In this work he went one step further, painting a local personality without any surroundings or props. The flat, white background focuses the viewer's attention on the weather-beaten face and direct gaze of the man posing for this portrait.
This painting is Guthrie's last naturalistic work and perhaps his best."