View of Gatehouse of Fleet

The Dublin artist, Robert Kelly, is known to have painted several landscape views in Galloway, at a time in the mid 19th century when there was growing interest in, and appreciation of, the aesthetic values of rural landscape.   This view from a point north-east of the town (near where the artists John Faed later built a house for his retirement), captures the enterprise of the relatively new town of Gatehouse with its mills and smoking chimneys. It also places it in its rural context at the foot of the Cally mansion and its policies - the seat of the Murrays of Broughton and Callay, who promoted the development of the cotton manufacturing town from the late 18th century. In the distance is Wigtown Bay and the Isle of Man is on the horizon.   This painting is an extremely valuable record of the town in the mid 18th century, and demonstrates that, in terms of its character and extent, it is relatively unchanged today.