ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the particular experiences of four Scottish artists: two female sculptors and two male painters, who made the journey from Edinburgh to Paris in the 1890s and 1900s. There was no shortage of artists from the other Scottish cities, especially Glasgow, but also from the rest of Britain, who travelled to Paris in these years, but there were some particular motives operating in Edinburgh, as will become clear from what follows. Although foreign students came to Paris for other studies too, by far the largest number was students of fine art, for whom the French capital was routinely described as a Mecca. Its supremacy had emerged gradually during the century. One of the earliest attractions was the Louvre, with its collections of artworks, many of them the fruits of Napoleonic conquests. French provincial students gravitated to Paris too. French influence was also at its height abroad, including Scotland, whether in painting or sculpture.
