Blackadder & Houston: The Study Collection | 29 July - 10 September 2023

This part of A Journey Shared serves as an introduction to the Blackadder Houston Study Collection, which emanates from The RSA Blackadder Houston Bequest.

The works on display show examples of the subject matter to which Elizabeth and John frequently returned and represent a small percentage of their vast studio home. The huge reward of a studio bequest is the insight it gives into the lives and practice of artists, through the breadth and depth of material contained within. The RSA Blackadder Houston Bequest contains paintings, drawings and prints from all periods of their careers, and sketchbooks and studio equipment including easels, furniture, and palettes. It also features Elizabeth and John’s extensive photographic and documentary archive, plus their impressive library and a feast of painters’ implements and materials.

In accepting this major gift, the Academy was fortunate enough to be given access to the artists’ amazing home at Fountainhall Road in Edinburgh. Crucially, their studios were left untouched since the artists last worked in them and could be fully photographed and documented. Funding from the bequest has also enabled its ongoing care, research, and scholarship. Over a period of three years (Covid permitting), two Academy Research Assistants assessed, catalogued, cleaned, and packed up the studios to form the foundation of the Blackadder Houston Study Collection. The coming years will bring further cataloguing, research, scholarship and exhibition of this significant collection, creating a unique and important resource in Scottish art for current and future generations.

Elizabeth’s Diploma Work, Self Portrait with Cat, and The Blue Compotier and Fife Village, acquired from John at the 1959 Annual Exhibition, are included to provide context to past strands of the RSA’s collecting within the two artists’ practice.