Woman Reading by a Window is an informal, introspective study with many striking contrasts of light and shade: amongst these one may note the woman’s dark hair and shadowed face shown against the pale curtains and sunlit street, while the crisp white pages of her magazine are accentuated by the dark panelling and her warmly coloured dress.

David Alison RSA RP, 1882-1955

Born in Dysart in Fife, Alison studied at Glasgow School of Art and won travelling scholarships to Paris and Italy. As well as being an accomplished portrait painter, Alison joined the teaching staff of Edinburgh College of Art in 1913, and worked there until 1946 when he retired as head of the school of drawing and painting. He was thus a colleague of Dorothy Johnstone and would have taught her sitter in Girl with Fruit, Belle Kilgour, as well as many who later became famous, including Anne Redpath. A friend of Scottish Colourist Francis Cadell, whom he met in Paris, he became a member with him of the Society of Eight, a group of artists seeking to bridge the divide between Glasgow and Edinburgh, which also included John Lavery and Samuel Peploe. His own work, consisting mainly of portraiture and atmospheric interiors with some still lifes, was popular during his lifetime.