Douglas Adams’ Highland Scenes

Douglas Adams (1853-1920) was a London-based landscape painter. He exhibited in the Royal Academy between 1880 and 1894, showed at the Society of British Artists, the Grosvenor Gallery, and the New Gallery and shared a Primrose Hill studio with other artists. Adams specialized as a landscape and wildfowl painter and often painted sporting scenes. Many of his paintings celebrated the field sports of hunting, shooting, and fishing, set against stunning but unforgiving Highland landscapes and painted in the Victorian tradition. Due to the success of his paintings, Adams worked with the well-known publishers Thomas McLean and Henry Graves & Co. to create limited edition prints of his more popular painted scenes. These prints were issued in large photogravure format, in triptychs, or as lithographs. We have several Adams prints in our collection:

The photogravure “Rough Shooting” exemplifies the tone and subject matter characteristics of much of Douglas Adams’ artwork. The photogravure was published by Thomas McLean in 1893 and depicts a small hunting party in the highlands. The group of hunters is huddled together in the foreground of the print, with one standing hunter aimed to shoot a bird. An epic, vast and misty landscape extends before them. The contrast of scale between human and nature captured by Adams communicated the sense of awe many 19th-century artists, writers, and travelers felt when capturing the Highlands. 

Similar in style, we also have a large, artist proof edition of an untitled hunting scene by Adams. The print was issued in a limited, numbered edition of 300 and is signed by Douglas Adams in the bottom margin. In the composition, a scattered hunting party traverses the rocky Highlands with their hunting dogs as large clouds loom overhead. The composition underscores the unpredictability of the terrain and weather, capturing Adams’ enduring fascination with the relationship between human activity and the natural world.

Golf enthusiasts will appreciate the photogravure of "A Difficult Bunker,” one in a famous trio of three paintings depicting the links at the Conwy Golf Club, in North Wales. The other two in the series are titled "The Drive" and "Putting Green." Adams decided to paint the series after a trip to the golf course in 1893. The three paintings, completed in 1893, were published as photogravures the next year, 1894, by Henry Graves & Co. 

Although centered on the game of golf, the work still situates its figures within a commanding landscape, where the characteristic outline of the northern Carneddau range and the northern extremity of the Snowdonia range in the background assert themselves as more than mere backdrop.

We also have two unframed Douglas Adams photogravures for sale, both fishing scenes: “Landing the Salmon” and “A Tight Line.” 

You can see all our Douglas Adams prints available for purchase, several of which are currently on sale. Consider adding this great, late Victorian artist to your art collection today.