"Sunshine and Shadow." Stonehaven , painted in 1891 by the Edinburgh born artist John Muirhead (1863-1927) captures the harbour and town at a key moment in its development as a major fishing port during the great C19th herring fishing boom.

The painting is one of 600 lots to go under the hammer this week at Shapes the Edinburgh auctioneer which sold the Jack Vettriano painting "Dance me to the end of Love " for £364,000.

Painted from above the harbour as the light begins to fade Muirhead captured the homecoming fleet and the bustle of life in the fish yards and lanes of Stonehaven.

By the 1890s there were 200 fishing boats based in Stonehaven. The industry employed 1280 people curing around 2.5 million barrels of herring a year.

There is increasing interest in the works of Scottish painters, a trend send by the rise of the Scottish Colourists. "There has been particular local interest in this painting as it so evocative of an important moment in the town's history," said a Shapes spokesman

Although this painting (84cmx45cm) is in oils, Muirhead made his name as a water colourist and became a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy school and like his brother David, also an artist, later moved to London.

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