What garment is Horatio Ross wearing? The great British art quiz

Pioneering photographer Horatio Ross, in a portrait by JS Patterson. Photograph: ANGUSalive

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from more than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions come from ANGUSalive, the culture, sport and leisure trust for the county of Angus. The trust offers residents and visitors services to inspire a healthy lifestyle, including sports centres, country parks, theatres and venues, museums, galleries, archives and libraries. ANGUSalive Museums, Galleries and Archives manage the Angus Council Collections.

You can see art from ANGUSalive on Art UK here. Find out more on the website here.

1. 

   What field was Dr Mead, painted here by Allan Ramsay, most noted for?

   1. Pharmacology

   2. Botany

   3. Microbiology

   4. Epidemiology

2. 

   What garment is pioneering photographer Horatio Ross wearing here?

   1. Hunter's plaid

   2. Arisaid plaid

   3. Shepherd’s plaid

   4. Rossie plaid

3. 

   This portrait of Louis Black, believed to be a formerly enslaved man, was painted by which artist?

   1. Mary Cameron

   2. Gavin Hamilton

   3. James Irvine

   4. Arthur Melville

4. 

   What landmark has artist Liz Brown depicted here in Returning to Angus?

   1. Eassie Churchyard

   2. Arbroath Abbey

   3. Brechin Cathedral

   4. Restenneth Priory

5. 

   This William Lamb bronze sculpture is of Angus poet Violet Jacob. Which of her poems was set to music by Jim Reid and performed and recorded by various other musicians, including Battlefield Band, Malinky, and Frightened Rabbit with Lau and Jim Malcolm?

   1. Glory

   2. The Wild Geese

   3. The Field by the Lirk o’ the Hill

   4. The Rowan

6. 

   This dramatic painting is by William Bradley Lamond. Where did he train as an artist?

   1. Edinburgh Art College

   2. Gray's School of Art

   3. Duncan of Jordanstone

   4. None of the above

7. 

   What did James G Lowson, pictured here, do as a profession?

   1. Cricket player

   2. Surgeon

   3. Writer

   4. All of the above

8. 

   Which town on the east coast of Scotland is the subject of this painting by Edward Baird?

   1. Stonehaven

   2. Montrose

   3. Arbroath

   4. Aberdeen

Solutions

1:D - Dr Richard Mead’s 1720 work A Short Discourse Concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Methods to Be Used to Prevent It was a historic milestone in understanding the transmission of disease. As physician to George II, his portrait was created by Ramsay, who painted other notables of the era such as David Hume, George III and Charles Edward Stuart. Image: Dr Mead, Allan Ramsay (1713–1784). Credit: ANGUSalive, 2:C - Shepherd’s plaid originated in the Borders and was primarily a practical garment. The blanket, or maud, provided shelter for a shepherd or a lost lamb on windswept hillsides. At a distance the black-and-white checks blend together, making an ideal camouflage for stalking game. Image: Horatio Ross, JS Patterson. Credit: ANGUSalive, 3:C - After a period of hard struggle, James Irvine became recognised as one of the best portrait painters in Scotland, and received numerous commissions. Not much is known about the sitter in this portrait, Louis Black, though it is believed he was a former enslaved man born in Brazil who later came to Montrose, Scotland. Image: Louis Black, James Irvine. Credit: ANGUSalive, 4:D - The tower and a tomb slab within the priory grounds are depicted on the horizon and in the foreground respectively. Since the local archives are situated nearby, Brown wished to convey the idea of people tracing their roots in the past while also looking to the future. Image: Returning to Angus, Liz Brown, © the copyright holder. Credit: ANGUSalive, 5:B - Violet Kennedy-Erskine was born in 1863, the second child of the 18th Laird of Dun. In her novels, stories and poems she used the songs and ballad traditions of her native country, often writing in Angus dialect. It is for the poignancy and longing for the Angus countryside in her poetry that she is best remembered. Reid's song The Wild Geese was also known as Norland Wind. William Lamb was a Scottish sculptor and artist influenced by his great love of Montrose. Image: Violet Jacob (1863-1946), 1925, William Lamb (1893-1951), © the copyright holder. Credit: ANGUSalive , 6:D - A Scottish painter, born at Newtyle, Angus, William Lamond had no formal art training and worked for the Caledonian Railway for many years. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1906, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Scottish Academy and Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. Depicted in this work, seaweed was gathered for the kelp industry on Auchmithie beach, near Arbroath. Kelp was the ashes of seaweed, rich in soda and potash and used for the manufacture of soap and glass, as well as for bleaching linen. Image: Gathering Seaweed, Auchmithie, William Bradley Lamond (1857–1924). Credit: ANGUSalive, 7:D - James Lowson was born on 1 July 1866 in Academy Street, Forfar. He graduated Edinburgh University, as a surgeon, in 1888, after which he was posted to Hong Kong. While there he played cricket for the Hong Kong cricket team and survived the tragic sinking of the steamship SS Bokhara on 10 October, 1892. He had to have a lung removed but continued to play cricket for Hong Kong and moonlighted occasionally as a writer. Eventually he retired in 1901 and settled in Forfar. He was elected to the town council in 1905 and served for 30 years, being made provost from 1925 to 1931. He became convener of the Public Health Committee and was responsible for many improvements to the public health administration of the town. Image: James G Lowson, Provost (1925-31), 1935, Stewart Carmichael (1867-1950) © the copyright holder. Credit: ANGUSalive, 8:B - Edward Baird was born in Montrose, the son of a sea captain. He studied at Glasgow School of Art and after a year’s scholarship in Italy, where he was strongly influenced by the Renaissance painters, he returned to live in his native town. He worked very slowly and his paintings bear witness to an immense attention to detail, as this painting of Montrose shows. He was an official war artist during the second world war, suffered chronic asthma and died in 1949, having produced only 39 oil paintings. Image: Montrose from Ferryden, Edward Baird (1904-1949). Credit: ANGUSalive

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   Pure teckle!

2. 0 and above.

   Not a skiffy!

3. 3 and above.

   No bad!