£7,560
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture | 738
Auction: Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Signed, oil on canvas
Note: Henry Young Alison studied under Fra Newbury at Glasgow School of Art. He served in France during the First World War, but was captured as a Prisoner of War and lost sight in one eye. After the War he returned to G. S. A. as a teacher of Drawing and Painting, and later served as the School’s Interim Director. He is remembered as an accomplished portrait and landscape painter whose work was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy from 1916-1921.
This enigmatic portrait of a figure in shadow is a particularly interesting example of Alison’s oeuvre. The figure is portrayed in partial shadow, so that the bright blue of his headdress and yellow of his garment appears to glow. Architectural detailing is suggested in the lower right corner, but the artist has concentrated attention on the sitter who looks directly out at the viewer with a familiar smile.