AUTHOR'S NOTES

"That's a part of the world that I know well, and have lived in for a long time - so he was painting the two parts of the world that I know best.

- > Author Richard Gwyn

“I became intrigued as to who this guy was, where he came from, and why he painted in such an extraordinary way in the first decade of the 20th century when nobody else was painting like that.”

Starting the project during lockdown, Gwyn had limited access to original work by Innes, so had to make do with reproductions and online research.

“I looked at the painters that influenced him - Turner, above everybody else,” he says. “I learned that he had a notebook of reproductions of Turner that he carried with him everywhere when he was a student. But I also read that he went to the British Museum to look at Japanese prints.

“Every week, he would be there looking at the Hokusai paintings, and these two influences - Turner and Japanese print art - stayed with him for all of his career.”

While Innes did paint interiors, much of his most lucent work depicts outdoors scenes, often with an otherworldly quality that goes beyond surface appearance.