Smith Art Gallery & Museum | Details

Sidebar content	Main content
Actions Displays	Laurel Hill Remove from selection Add to selection Reproduction Download mediaDownload as zip file Object number04483.26 TitleLaurel Hill Creator Jane Anne. Wright (Painter)‎ DescriptionThis small and delicate watercolour depicts Laurelhill House in Stirling as it was in around 1900. It was painted by Jane Anne Wright and is one of a significant number of her works in our collection. She was part of a fairly wealthy Stirling family and spent a lot of time exploring the Stirling area while visiting friends at their country estates. Her paintings are her legacy, a record of places now very much altered or completely lost. At first glance, Laurelhill is a charming record of a notable local building; a fine house with classical features, set in substantial grounds approached by a sweeping drive. As is so often the case, all is not as it seems – our idyllic landscape hides a darker story. Laurelhill was built around 1806 by James Duthie, a West India Merchant who owned an estate in Jamaica named Mount Pleasant. We know that around this time almost 30 per cent of estates on the island were owned by Scots. Much of their wealth was built off the back of slavery - the sugar cane grown on the plantations used largely forced labour. In 1807, not long after Laurelhill was built, an Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was passed. The slave trade in the British Colonies became illegal and British ships were no longer allowed to carry slaves. Yet complete abolition did not come until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Production date 1890 - 1900 Production periodVictorian SubjectLaurelhill Object nameWatercolour Painting MaterialPaper TechniqueWatercolour Dimensions image Height: 160 mm image Width: 231 mm frame Height: 320 mm frame Width: 663 mm

Reproduction

Download mediaDownload as zip file

Object number04483.26

TitleLaurel Hill

DescriptionThis small and delicate watercolour depicts Laurelhill House in Stirling as it was in around 1900. It was painted by Jane Anne Wright and is one of a significant number of her works in our collection. She was part of a fairly wealthy Stirling family and spent a lot of time exploring the Stirling area while visiting friends at their country estates. Her paintings are her legacy, a record of places now very much altered or completely lost. At first glance, Laurelhill is a charming record of a notable local building; a fine house with classical features, set in substantial grounds approached by a sweeping drive. As is so often the case, all is not as it seems – our idyllic landscape hides a darker story. Laurelhill was built around 1806 by James Duthie, a West India Merchant who owned an estate in Jamaica named Mount Pleasant. We know that around this time almost 30 per cent of estates on the island were owned by Scots. Much of their wealth was built off the back of slavery - the sugar cane grown on the plantations used largely forced labour. In 1807, not long after Laurelhill was built, an Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was passed. The slave trade in the British Colonies became illegal and British ships were no longer allowed to carry slaves. Yet complete abolition did not come until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

Production date 1890 - 1900

Production periodVictorian

SubjectLaurelhill

Object nameWatercolour

Painting

MaterialPaper

TechniqueWatercolour

Dimensions

image Height: 160 mm
image Width: 231 mm
frame Height: 320 mm
frame Width: 663 mm