"Pipe Practice" by William Bruce Ellis Ranken

[S Mitchell]

Like you, I find the truncated composition interesting/curious. I couldn't help but wonder if Ranken either had a phobia about feet, or just didn't think he painted feet well. Only half-heartedly, of course. I did wonder if the cropping was in the digital reproduction so I researched the original, and found that this is how he painted it. Interesting decision as his other works don't seem to use this approach.

I'd love to know the history of this particular picture, as he doesn't seem to have painted many overtly Scottish pictures. He was a "Society" Painter, as was Sargent. The Regimental nature of the kit of the Pipers and the 1918 date point to the WWI dynamic.

I wonder if resident expert on such matters @OC Richard may be able to shed some light on the subject?

I'd googled it also and was surprised to see the original cropped as it was.

This morning, I did a quick search for information about the painter, and I found he was friends with a photographer named Adolph De Meyer, who, around that time, worked as a photographer for Vogue and then Vanity Fair.

I wonder if de Meyer's work had any influence on William Bruce Ellis Ranken?