A PAINTING of a bullfight by an innovative Scottish artist and illustrator of the early 20th century has been gifted to the nation by his family.

Part of a major new show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Bullfight in Madrid with Picador Kem, by the Coatbridge-born painter Tom Gentleman, the artist behind the well known Shell posters of the 1930s, is now a permanent part of the national collections.

Gentleman, born in 1892, learned to paint through evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA), and taught at Coatbridge Technical School.

He also contributed cartoons to various publications, including the Glasgow Evening Times.

From 1932, he became studio manager at the Regent Advertising Service, which ran the advertising for Shell - he was soon employed directly by the energy giant and became their chief in-house artist, as well as working for journals such as Housewife, Lilliput and World Review.

The bullfight painting, created by Gentleman whilst travelling in Spain on a GSA scholarship, is part of the A New Era: Scottish Modern Art from 1900-1950 show at the galleries, which opens this weekend and runs until June.

It had previously been on loan.

Its curator, senior curator Alice Strang, said: "It really is a Christmas present for the galleries, and it is a terrific picture."

She added: "What we are trying to show is how open Scottish artists were to what was happening in modern art.

"Because we can show they were absolutely at the cutting edge.

"People may not be aware of how radical these artists were - it may only have been for a short period, but when you draw all these artists together the sum really shows we can have a recalibration of Scottish art history."

To celebrate its inclusion in the show, the family of Mr Gentleman have gifted the piece to the national collection.

The exhibition charts Scottish modernism from its beginnings in the first decade of the century, when JD Fergusson and SJ Peploe experienced at first-hand the radical new work produced in Paris by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse.

The exhibition includes Etude de Rhythm, painted by Fergusson in 1910, a candid depiction of sex which has not been shown in public in the UK before.

It also includes William Gear's abrasive Autumn Landscape from 1950, which led to questions being asked in Parliament after it was awarded the £500 Festival of Britain purchase prize.

It shows work from the 1950s when Scottish artists like Alan Davie, Gear, Stephen Gilbert and Eduardo Paolozzi were at the forefront of European contemporary art.

It includes more than 100 paintings, sculptures and works on paper by 50 artists and is on display from 2 December until 10 June next year, drawn from private and public collections from throughout the UK.