A painting of a St Andrews street by a Fife artist has been discovered exactly 100 years after its creation.
William Hackstoun’s watercolour depicts North Street, with the cathedral in the background. It appeared this year at a Scottish auction house, which labelled it as by an unknown artist.
Scottish fine art dealer Neil McRae identified it as the 1910 work of Hackstoun and snapped it up. He has since discovered it was an illustration from the votiva tabella, a memorial volume of theses on art and theology published by St Andrews University in 1911 during its 500th anniversary.
The Stirling dealer hopes its emergence will now draw interest from the university as it prepares for its 600th anniversary celebrations.
Hackstoun who was born in Balbreakie, Kennoway, and died in 1921 was a close friend of art critic, artist and poet John Ruskin and painter Dugald Sutherland MacColl. Examples of his work can be seen in provincial and national art collections, including that of the National Galleries of Scotland.
He was first commissioned to draw French cathedral towns by Ruskin and spent several years in London before settling in St Andrews, painting Fife landscapes, villages and seascapes.