WITH their proximity to the River Clyde, scenes of Helensburgh and the surrounding areas are often beset with images of piers and jetties up and down the coastline. Now an exhibition is open in Helensburgh Library, showcasing the work of artists as they have sought to capture the iconic sights over the past 200 years.

The paintings from the Anderson Trust are available to view until the end of May and largely feature the work of artists from in and around the area.

Mary-Jane Selwood, trustee of the Anderson Trust, told the Advertiser: “For a long time piers and, in particular Helensburgh Pier, have featured regularly in the local press and in the hearts and thoughts of Helensburgh residents.

“Now, arrivals over water are welcomed to the town not by a pier but by a leisure centre. Perhaps this exhibition of paintings from the Anderson Trust Collection, will help us to remember and reflect on how piers used to look and the vital purpose they served for coastal habitations round Scotland for many centuries when the sea was their main highway.

“They retain their importance, here at the confluence of the Gairloch with the Clyde, serving transport, tourism, commerce, leisure and defence.”

Mary-Jane explained that, today, there are few traces of the small jetties built before 1802, when the town of Helensburgh was planned and named by its laird, Sir James Colquhoun.

She continued: “An example of a more substantial jetty, where sailing cargo vessels tied up, can be seen in the early nineteenth century painting Helensburgh Pier. The launch of the first steamboat on the Clyde, The Comet, built for Henry Bell of the Bath’s Hotel (later Queen’s Court) marked a significant increase in marine traffic and prosperity for the town, a period that is well represented in the paintings on view such as William Daniell’s Steamboat on the Clyde.

“A further boost to the importance of Helensburgh came in 1865 when the North British Railway Company linked the town with Glasgow. At first trains terminated at Craigendoran where the pier formed a convenient link with the paddle steamers that ferried city dwellers ‘doon the water’ on popular day trips to Rothesay and other coastal holiday towns.”

Paintings in the exhibition record the various stages of the pier, over 100 years, from the small jetty in Rosa Templeton’s Pier at Craigendoran, to the busy terminal for paddle steamer traffic, to its decline in the 1970s, as illustrated in Ailsa Tanner’s linoprint.

A number of the works displayed were among the paintings in Nance Anderson’s original collection of local scenes, which she bequeathed to the people of Helensburgh on her death in 1980, and which later formed the nucleus of the Anderson (Local Collection) Trust.

Admission to the exhibition, which will be on show during normal library opening hours, is free.