Deserted Port

MacTaggart's work is characterised by bright but heavy colour and thickly applied paint. In his use of colour he is regarded as a successor of the Scottish Colourists whilst his loose style is attributed to the influence of French painting to which he was exposed during his many visits to France before and after the second world war. His later work in particular shows the influence of the French painter Georges Rouault in his use of heavy black outlines. These features of MacTaggart's work are also characteristic to varying degrees of work by fellow artists William Crozier, William Gillies, Anne Redpath and John Maxwell with whom MacTaggart studied at Edinburgh College of Art. Since that time their work has often been referred to collectively as the 'Edinburgh School', although they did not regard themselves as a cohesive group. Sir William MacTaggart was the grandson of painter William McTaggart. In 1933 he returned to Edinburgh College of Art to teach. He was knighted in 1963.