''Caley Station'' is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

Edwin G Lucas Edwin G Lucas (30 March 1911 – 9 December 1990) was a Scottish Modernist artist. He was an amateur, self-taught apart from evening classes at Edinburgh College of Art, but during the period 1939-1952 he produced Surrealist works that are said ...

in 1942. Lucas created paintings that were

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

in nature and were unique to 20th Century British Art. This painting was a part of the 15th

Edinburgh Art Festival The Edinburgh Art Festival is an annual visual arts festival, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, during August and coincides with the Edinburgh International and Fringe festivals. The Art Festival was established in 2004, and receives public funding fr ...

in 2018, where Edinburgh visual arts were celebrated. It is currently placed at the

City Art Centre The City Art Centre is part of the Museums & Galleries Edinburgh, which sits under the Culture directorate of the City of Edinburgh Council. The City Art Centre has a collection which include historic and modern Scottish painting and photography ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

About

The

Princes Street railway station Princes Street Station was a mainline railway station which stood at the west end of Princes Street, in Edinburgh, Scotland, for almost 100 years. Temporary stations were opened in 1848 and 1870, with construction of the main station commencin ...

was the entry point into the Capital, Edinburgh. An exhibition in 2019 at the

Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh - The Caledonian Waldorf Astoria Edinburgh - The Caledonian is a five-star hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. Opened in December 1903, it is an example of a British grand railway hotel, formerly called The Caledonian Hotel, and nicknamed 'The Caley'. It stands at t ...

, which was erected where the station once stood, brought back fond memories of the station and brought this painting again to fame. The station was lovingly known as The Caley, and this painting of The Caley captured the life at the station aptly. The station's terminus,

Juniper Green Juniper Green is a village on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated about south-west of the city centre. It bridges the city bypass, and extends along the foothills of the Pentlands. It is bordered by Colinton to the east, Baberton i ...

, was the place the artist lived from 1917 to 1947. Several of his works were inspired by the scenery outside his carriage window as he rode to school and his job. He started producing watercolours of the

Water of Leith The Water of Leith (Scottish Gaelic: ''Uisge Lìte'') is the main river flowing near central Edinburgh, Scotland, and flows into the port of Leith where it flows into the sea via the Firth of Forth. Name The name ''Leith'' may be of Britto ...

valley, views from the Pentlands, and the surroundings of Juniper Green in the 1930s. Surrealist efforts by Lucas, which were avant-garde at the time, were among the movement's limited contacts with Scottish art. He had few chances to exhibit his most

Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

work; thus, the arts establishment paid him little attention. This picture, which the artist considered to be his best recollection of Edinburgh, was given to the city in 1990, the year he passed away.

Description

The painting depicts the crowd rushing past the ticket counter at the station. However, through a silhouette of the artist himself, the painting takes us to a past where the sight of the grand Victorian inside of Princes Street Station is seen. His personal silhouette serves as a visual cue that this is his very own unique interpretation of the scene. The sun entering through the glass roofs shows the architectural details in Lucas's paintings that are similar to that in modern photographs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caley Station 1940s paintings Scottish paintings Oil paintings History of Edinburgh