[2] Despite, for example, the Glasgow School of Art having an international reputation and producing a multitude of famous artists, the Royal Scottish Academy seemed to rather cater to Edinburgh and the east coast of Scotland instead.
That membership entitled the artist to show around twenty paintings in their exhibition gallery at 12 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh.
They can decorate the place in their united wisdom and they have done it exceedingly well, while the pictures are grouped so that each artist's work can be examined by itself, a condition which enhances the individual value, and does not detract from the general effect.
The Aberdeen Press and Journal of Friday 8 January 1926 stating:[9] We must here express the regret that the place in the Eight of the late W. Y. Macgregor should have been filled by Mr Peploe.
The Dundee Courier of Friday 8 January 1926 described the new appointment more guardedly:[10] Mr S. J. Peploe, A.R.S.A., new entrant to the Society, and his five pictures claim the more attention.
The Scotsman of Tuesday 8 January 1929 stated:[12] The place left vacant by the resignation of that refined and personal landscape painter, Mr A. G. Sinclair, who had been a member for many years, has been filled by the election of Mr. John Duncan.
Mr Duncan's idiosyncratic art also introduces a new note, and helps to give further variety to an exhibition in which personality has invariably been in evidence .
David Alison let his membership lapse, so for the 1935 exhibition the two obvious candidates of Archibald McGlashan and William MacTaggart were elected as members of the Society of Eight.
Loaned pictures saw the artists William McTaggart, James Lawton Wingate, John Duncan and Edward Arthur Walton represented.
Invited artists were Samuel Peploe, Walter Grieve and the Edinburgh College of Art sculptor Percy Portsmouth.
[23] Macgregor's space was not filled in 1925; invited artists were Paul Gauguin with his Vision After the Sermon, Roland Strasser, the Edinburgh College of Art principal Gerald Moira, and the sculptor Alice Meredith Williams.
[27] The 1932 exhibition saw invitees Michael de Torby, Hamish Constable Paterson and work by the late member Alexander Garden Sinclair.
[29] The 1934 exhibition still had 7 Society members; the invitees were:- Hubert Wellington, Robert Sivell, John McLauchlan Milne and Archibald McGlashan.
The heavy loss sustained by the society in the death of Mr F. C. B. Cadell will not be fully apparent until next year, since a fine collection of his works is on view in the present exhibition.
For the rest, Messrs David Allison, W. G. Gillies, Sir John Lavery, H. J. Lintott, Archibald A. McGlashan, and William MacTaggart fully maintain the high standard of this society of competent and stylish painters.
Mr Gillies leads off with a dozen works, in which he revels in the joy of flowing rhythms and daring colour.
A particularly happy colour arrangement is “Autumn Moon,” in which touches of green are beautifully placed in relation to a scheme of reds and warm greys.
His “West Ross-shire” may be a little too vigorous for some tastes, but contains some very interesting linear rhythms, and there is a fine quality of fluid paint in “Loch Tay.”Poetic QualityNext in order comes Mr Lintott, as restrained as Mr Gillies is voluptuous, but with a lovely poetic quality in all his works.
The most important, “Spring Fantasy,” has all the true Lintott qualities—charming colour, expressive and meticulous drawing, and a finely realised effect of flowing movement.
A small landscape, “Noonday” is full of mellow sunshine, and “A Sussex Garden” has the authentic atmosphere of its subject.
Mr Alison, who occupies the next section of this wall shows three portraits, all first rate, and a number of landscapes, still-life studies, and flower pieces, which make up a convincing demonstration of his skill in the handling of paint.
The “Still-life with Flowers” is notable for harmonious gradations of colour and tone; and a landscape, "Strathcona" for its interesting pattern.Child StudiesThe strength of Archibald McGlashan’s painting could not be better illustrated than by the 21 works on exhibition.
Mostly small in size, these paintings possess a carrying power on which distance has no effect, and though some of them have the appearance of quick sketches, there is a deal of thoughtful elimination of unessentials behind their apparent casualness.
A large “Still-life with Guitar” is a striking design, and there is a telling realisation of the open air in “View of Oslo.” The Famous Red ChairAlmost the whole of the next wall is devoted to the Cadells, a finely representative collection, covering the main aspects of the work of this very individual painter.
Interiors, with the famous red chair, still-life studies, the vivid and stylistic “Lady in Black,” some lovely Iona colour harmonies, the geometrical “ Still-life with Fan,” and the restrained "lnterior, Regent Terrace" have all been seen before, but one is profoundly grateful for .this chance 10 see them again, And in the small gallery are a few examples of that unique Cadell facility in conveying some human peculiarity by three lines and a dot or so, with an economy of means and a psychological insight peculiarly his own.
The Society of Eight did succeed in bringing a high quality exhibition annually throughout its run, by its limited membership and its selected guest exhibitors.