James Howe’s (1780-1836) c.1817 All Hallow’s Fair on Calton Hill shows an event that was already a thing of the past when the picture was completed.
It is one of the works included in The Fine Art Society in Edinburgh’s exhibition Folk & Fancy (April 21-May 20), which features late 18th-20th century depictions of Scottish traditions, beliefs, customs and story-telling.
All Hallow’s Fair…, which is available for £95,000, is equally fanciful in its own way. It shows the event, which had ceased in 1813, against an Edinburgh townscape. Howe includes a number of the city’s major new buildings, including Nelson’s Monument and St James’s Church. Though it is not topographically accurate it combines the liveliness of a past tradition (the fair) against the rapid development of the landscape.