Scottish National Gallery to stage golfing exhibition this summer

The Scottish National Gallery will stage an exhibition of golf paintings this summer including the John Lavery illustrated. Charles Lees’s The Golfers, said to be the greatest golfing painting in the world which was painted in 1847 and portrays a match played on the Old Course at St Andrews, will be the centrepiece among the highlights of The Art of Golf: The Story of Scotland’s National Sport.

The exhibition will explore golf as a subject of fascination for artists from the seventeenth century to the present day, bringing together around 60 outstanding paintings, by artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634), Paul Sandby (1731-1809) and Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823). The exhibition will have a particular emphasis on the emergence of the sport in Scotland, and will include a section devoted to John Lavery’s stunning paintings from the early 1920s of North Berwick and its surrounding golf courses.

The exhibition will also explore the origins of the game and its importance for the development of golfing tourism in Scotland. Examples of early golf equipment will also be on display.

The Art of Golf will overlap with two important sporting events in Scotland in 2014: the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow (23 July – 3 August) and the Ryder Cup, Gleneagles (23 – 28 September), the biennial competition played between teams of professional golfers representing the United States and Europe.

THE ART OF GOLF: THE STORY OF SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL SPORT
12 July – 26 October 2014
SCOTTISH NATIONAL GALLERY, The Mound, Edinburgh EH2 2EL
Admission £8/£6
Switchboard 0131 624 6200 | nationalgalleries.org