Hugh Buchanan - Biedermeier Interior, Villa Carlotta
Watercolour, 22 x 15 inches.
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“Lake Como is as close as one can get to paradise; as if one has walked into a Maxfield Parrish painting or a James Bond film set, and the lake and its neighbours have of course, served as settings for both.
The Villa Carlotta was a particular favourite of mine, or at least I thought so until I saw the Villa Balbianello: the balustrades with the view to the lake beyond are breath-taking, and a print resulted from that. But then again the ‘light soaked’ interiors of the Villa Carlotta with their exquisite Empire furniture still held my imagination. I couldn’t choose between four potential subjects so painted them all.”
About the Artist
Hugh Buchanan was born in Edinburgh in 1958. The city instilled in him a love of architecture which he developed as a student of Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. After graduating in 1981 he worked on commissions for the National Trust and in 1987 was invited by the Prince of Wales to paint a series of interiors of Balmoral. In 1988 he was commissioned by the House of Commons to paint four interiors.
Hugh Buchanan's paintings are also in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Edinburgh City Art centre, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Aberdeen, the Bank of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Flemings Bank, Deutsche Bank, the National Trust for Scotland. In 2002 he was commissioned by the House of Lords to paint the Lying in State of the Queen Mother at the Palace of Westminster.