David Small, Artist (1845 - 1927)

The above painting, featured on a Largo postcard, is by Dundee artist David Small. Originally from Kinross, David was a cashier before swapping the office for the studio. As the Dundee Courier (13 May 1927) noted, "from his earliest years he had shown an artistic bent". He was one of the earliest members of the Glasgow Art Club and "for some years was engaged on work for the illustrated journals". In 1890, he joined Dundee publisher John Leng and Co. Ltd. (which later merged with D.C. Thomson) and "during the years prior to the introduction of photographic reproductions his graphic sketches of passing events were a regular feature of the "Advertiser" and allied publications".

After producing much work featuring Glasgow and Dundee, "Mr Small's talent...discovered itself perhaps more fully in his transcripts from the East Neuk of Fife".  His scenes from this part of Fife were reproduced as postcards - sending his work all over the world..."their homely truthfulness has stirred the affectionate memories of exiles from the homeland."

Although Mr Small (shown in the photograph below) lost his sight in his later years, "he kept his interests ever alive, delighted in an argument about some artistic or antiquarian problem, and was the most genial and kindly companion for a long evening's talk". When he died at the age of 82 in 1927, he was survived by six sons and one daughter.