In this work Farquharson has captured the polluted atmosphere of the capital of the jute industry in 1890. On the far left is the new Tay railway bridge, which replaced the one that collapsed in a gale in 1879, plunging a train and its passengers into the stormy Firth of Tay. 

David Farquharson ARA ARSA RSW, 1840-1907

Born in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, Farquharson started work as an apprentice house painter but gave that up to concentrate on art, moving to Edinburgh in 1872. He was largely self-taught, although for a time he studied under Andrew Geddes in London. Farquharson was a tonal painter rather than a colourist, executing landscapes and coastal scenes in Scotland, England and The Netherlands in oil and, to a lesser extent, watercolour. He moved to London in 1886 and later settled in Sennen Cove, Cornwall, although he often visited Scotland.