Sunset over Scottish Highlands ‘Allan Waters’, signed oil painting

Sunset over the Highlands, ‘Allan Waters’ by F. E. Jamieson (British 1895-1950) signed, lower corner & titled verso oil painting on canvas laid over board, framed canvas: 16 x 24 inches framed: 19 x 27 inches Fine quality antique oil painting by the much admired and celebrated British artist F. E. Jamieson (1895-1950). The painting captures this idyllic hazy view of the famous and beautiful mountains and river ‘Allan Waters’ in Scotland. The Allan Water is a river in central Scotland. Rising in the Ochil Hills, it runs through Strathallan to Dunblane and Bridge of Allan before joining the River Forth. Two broadside ballads refer to the “Allan Water”. According to one, a Scottish ballad, the “Allan Water’s wide and deep, and my dear Anny’s very bonny; Wides the Straith that lyes above’t, if’t were mine I’de give it all for Anny.” The other, more familiar, English ballad begins “On the banks of Allan Water” and relates the death of a miller’s daughter whose soldier lover proves untrue. This version, popularised by C. E. Horn in his comic opera, Rich and Poor (1812), is sung by Bathsheba Everdene at the sheepshearing supper in Thomas Hardy’s novel Far From The Madding Crowd (1874). A similar rendition was recorded with church organ accompaniment by Italian singer Ariella Uliano in 2008. We are extremely fortunate to have been handling the works of the enigmatic British artist, F. E. Jamieson since the year we began art dealing, 1989. Over this time, coupled with our love of the Scottish landscape, we have bought and sold many hundreds of his paintings, in all their various guises and subjects and are considered by many to be a leading authority on the artist and his work. Mr. Jamieson was largely a painter of Scottish landscapes and loch scenes. Born in 1895, Jamieson lived on the south coast of England and was contracted to a large department store to supply them with his paintings. He was an ambitious man and keen to sell more works than through just one shop. In order to do this, he started to sign his works with pseudonyms other than his own name, in order that he could sell his work to a wider audience. It worked and it is considered that Jamieson at least 15 different pseudonym names on his paintings. In addition to selling through furniture shops, Jamieson would travel door to door offering his paintings to housewives and private buyers. In our years of researching the artist, we heard one story related to us by an old customer who remembers that Jamieson started selling door to door travelling by bicycle. By the end of his career, he was selling door to door in his Bentley motor car. In order to increase his output, Jamieson would often paint the same scene and subject many times over. His favourite area of Scotland was Loch Lomond and the Trossochs National Park, where he painted literally thousands of highland scenes, some of which numerous times over again. It was quite rare for him to include the human figure or cattle, though they do appear in more select works. Jamiesons favourite canvas size was 16 x 24 inches; sometimes going to 20 x 30 inches and rarely 12 x 20 inches and 20 x 24 inches. He often titled his works in pencil to the wooden stretcher bars, which have often been covered by framers but can often be found by removing the framers masking tape. Condition report: The painting and frame are both in a very pleasing condition.