David Macbeth Sutherland RSA - In the Botanical Gardens

An expressive original oil on panel by the Scottish artist David Macbeth Sutherland RSA (1883–1973), depicting a mature tree in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Rather than presenting a conventional panoramic view of the gardens, Sutherland moves directly beneath the canopy and makes the tree itself the monumental focus of the composition.

A sturdy reddish-brown trunk rises through the centre of the panel, while an intricate network of heavy, twisting branches spreads across almost the entire upper half of the image. The garden beyond is compressed into broad passages of fresh green, ochre, russet, grey and muted yellow. Sutherland’s vigorous handling gives the branches an almost animate quality, creating a rhythmic structure that approaches abstraction while remaining firmly rooted in observation.

The tree is most likely a deodar or Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara), identifiable by its wide, tiered limbs and characteristically drooping secondary branches. The species was widely introduced into larger Victorian parks and gardens and became an important feature of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s historic tree collection.

It is possible that the painting depicts the Garden’s celebrated deodar planted in 1859 by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. That specimen stood prominently beside a garden path, eventually becoming the tallest tree at the Edinburgh site. The path-side position, spreading lower limbs and surrounding open lawn seen in Sutherland’s painting make the connection particularly tempting, although the precise individual tree cannot be confirmed. The historic cedar was sadly lost following severe damage during Storm Éowyn in January 2025.

Born in Wick, Caithness, Sutherland studied under Charles Hodge Mackie at the Royal Scottish Academy and continued his training at Edinburgh College of Art. After receiving a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship, he travelled through Spain, France and the Low Countries, experiences that helped introduce a freer and more modern approach to his painting. He later taught at Edinburgh College of Art and, alongside Mary Newbery and Dorothy Johnstone, helped revive the progressive Edinburgh Group. Sutherland married Johnstone in 1924 and became Principal of Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen in 1933. He is particularly known for his Scottish and Breton landscapes, portraits and figure paintings.

The loosely worked surface is particularly appealing. Areas of the pale ground remain visible between the brushstrokes, while individual forms are stated with speed and confidence rather than laborious detail. This gives the painting the immediacy of a study made directly before the subject and places it among Sutherland’s more modern and adventurous landscape works.

The original Bourne Fine Art label verso identifies the work as In the Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, records the medium and dimensions, and confirms that it was exhibited as number 19 in the gallery’s Edinburgh Festival Exhibition of 1987. The work additionally carries provenance by descent through the artist’s family, giving it particularly strong documentary history.

Presented in a warm wooden frame with a broad cream-painted inner slip. A distinctive and atmospheric Edinburgh painting, combining an important Scottish artist, a historic garden setting and the possible depiction of one of the Royal Botanic Garden’s most celebrated trees.

Artist: David Macbeth Sutherland RSA
Title: In the Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh
Medium: Oil on panel
Signed: No signature visible
Date: Probably 1910s–early 1930s
Unframed size: 44.5 × 37.5 cm
Framed size: 50 × 43 cm
Exhibited: Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh Festival Exhibition, 1987, no. 19
Provenance: By descent through the artist’s family; Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh, 1987