HIGHLAND LANDSCAPE. FIGURES BY A CROFT BESIDE A SCOTTISH LOCH. HOWARD (Fl.c.1850-1860), SIGNED AND DATED 1852

HIGHLAND LANDSCAPE. FIGURES BY A CROFT BESIDE A SCOTTISH LOCH. 

HOWARD (Fl.c.1850-1860), SIGNED AND DATED 1852

A mid-19th century Highland landscape depicting two figures in discourse before a fisherman’s croft with fishing nets hanging on a frame, probably beside a West Coast loch.

Net making provided an important supplemental income on coastal crofts, where hand-spinning and weaving hemp and flax for nets was undertaken by fishermen’s wives and families. During the 1850’s this cottage industry diminished in the face of rapidly expanding machine manufacturing threatening the crofters’ way of life.

[see, Bremer, B. The Industries of Scotland, their Rise, Progress and Present Condition (1869) Chapter 14]. 

 
Framed in a reproduction English giltwood frame.

Condition: 

British School, 1852