The Visual Arts at the Edinburgh International Festival, 1947 to 1976 lists exhibitions during the first three decades of the festival.
Although they were not featured in the first two festivals in 1947 and 1948, from 1949 the visual arts became an important feature with a series of exhibitions at the Royal Scottish Academy and the National Gallery of Scotland.
During the first decade, they tended to be devoted to famous major artists—from Rembrandt to the Impressionists. While in the second and third decades, there were also ones showcasing particular collections, and national schools of artists. Archaeological treasures were shown at the Royal Scottish Museum, now known as the National Museum of Scotland, and some others were connected with the performing arts.
Since the 19th-century, Edinburgh has enjoyed good facilities for showing the visual arts. During the first three decades, the Royal Scottish Academy was the main gallery used by the festival, hosting an least 22 exhibitions. The other main locations were the Royal Scottish Museum now known as the National Museum of Scotland, where eight exhibitions were held, and the National Gallery of Scotland which had five. Edinburgh College of Art and Waverley Market in Princes Street each held three exhibitions. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, City of Edinburgh Art Gallery and the Fruit Market Gallery, Market Street each had 2 exhibitions. In addition there were at least another 10 places used for smaller exhibitions.
| Year | Exhibition | Place | Notes | |
| 1949 | Exhibition of Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the Collection of the Marquess of Bute | [1] | ||
| 1950 | National Gallery of Scotland | [2] | ||
| 1951 | Spanish Paintings (El Greco to Goya) | National Gallery of Scotland | [3] | |
| 1952 | [4] | |||
| 1953 | Royal Scottish Academy | [5] | ||
| 1953 | Medieval Frescoes from the Churches and Monasteries of Yugoslavia | |||
| 1954 | Royal Scottish Academy | [6] | ||
| 1954 | Treasures from the Barber Institute (Birmingham) | National Gallery of Scotland | ||
| 1954 | Homage to Diaghilev | |||
| 1955 | Royal Scottish Academy | [7] | ||
| 1956 | Royal Scottish Academy | [8] | ||
| 1957 | Royal Scottish Academy | [9] | ||
| 1958 | Masterpieces of Byzantine Art | Royal Scottish Museum | [10] | |
| 1958 | Moltzau Collection (Cézanne to Picasso) | Royal Scottish Academy | ||
| 1959 | Masterpieces of Czech Art | Royal Scottish Academy | [11] | |
| 1960 | Blue Rider Group: an Exhibition of German Expressionist Painting | Royal Scottish Academy | [12] | |
| 1961 | Epstein Memorial Exhibition | Waverley Market, Princes Street | [13] | |
| 1961 | Selection from the Bührle Collection (Zürich) | Royal Scottish Academy | ||
| 1962 | Modern Primitive Paintings from Yugoslavia | National Gallery of Scotland | [14] | |
| 1962 | Matisse and After (from the Sonja Henie — Niels Onstad Collection in Oslo | Royal Scottish Academy | ||
| 1963 | Modigliani and Soutine | Royal Scottish Academy | [15] | |
| 1963 | Music and Dance in Indian Art | |||
| 1964 | Royal Scottish Academy | [16] | ||
| 1965 | Royal Scottish Academy | [17] | ||
| 1965 | Treasures of Rumanian Art | Royal Scottish Museum | ||
| 1966 | Royal Scottish Academy | [18] | ||
| 1967 | Royal Scottish Academy | [19] | ||
| 1967 | Two hundred summers in a day | Waverley Market | ||
| 1967 | Treasures from Scottish Houses | Royal Scottish Museum | ||
| 1967 | Edinburgh Open 10 | |||
| 1968 | Royal Scottish Museum | [20] | ||
| 1968 | Royal Scottish Museum | |||
| 1968 | Boudin to Picasso | Royal Scottish Academy | ||
| 1968 | Canada 101 | Edinburgh College of Art | ||
| 1968 | Hoffnung Exhibition | |||
| 1969 | Sixteenth century Italian drawings from British private collections | Merchants' Hall | [21] | |
| 1969 | Contemporary Polish art | |||
| 1969 | Jack Coia gold medallist | Royal Incorporation of Architects, 15 Rutland Square | ||
| 1969 | Pomp (works of art from the City of London) | Royal Scottish Museum | ||
| 1970 | Early Celtic art | Royal Scottish Museum | [22] | |
| 1970 | Contemporary German art from Düsseldorf | Edinburgh College of Art | ||
| 1971 | The Belgian contribution to surrealism | Royal Scottish Academy | [23] | |
| 1971 | Sir Walter Scott Bicentenary | Parliament House | ||
| 1971 | Writer to the Nation (Walter Scott) | Waverley Market | ||
| 1971 | Contemporary Romanian art | |||
| 1972 | Royal Scottish Academy | [24] | ||
| 1972 | Italian seventeenth-century drawings from British private collection | [25] | ||
| 1972 | Exhibition of Polish Contemporary Art | [26] | ||
| 1973 | Permanences e l'Art Francais | Royal Scottish Academy | [27] | |
| 1973 | Objects USA | City of Edinburgh Art Gallery | ||
| 1973 | Tyrone Guthrie Exhibition | Assembly Hall, forecourt | ||
| 1974 | Aachen International 70/74 | Royal Scottish Academy | [28] | |
| 1974 | Eighteenth-century musical instruments: France and Britain | City of Edinburgh Art Gallery | ||
| 1974 | EDA Eleven Dutch artists | Fruit Market Gallery, Market Street | ||
| 1975 | Kandinsky | Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art | [29] | |
| 1975 | A kind of gentle painting, an Exhibition of Elizabethan Miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver | Scottish Arts Council Gallery, 19 Charlotte Square | ||
| 1975 | Eight from Berlin | Fruit Market Gallery, Market Street | ||
| 1975 | Recording Scotland's Heritage | Canongate Tolbooth Museum | ||
| 1976 | The Royal Scottish Academy, 150th anniversary summer exhibition | Royal Scottish Academy | [30] | |
| 1976 |