£8,820
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture | 738
Auction: Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Oil on canvas
Provenance: Private Collection, USA
Note: By the age of 30 McBey had become an established and in-demand artist. He was now a member of the leisured class, and enjoyed all the social benefits this entailed - particularly the opportunity to mix with eligible young women. McBey was charismatic, humorous and dashingly handsome, and maintained numerous affairs throughout his life, with the objects of his affection also often serving as artistic muses. One of his most intoxicating affairs was initiated in 1928, when he encountered an American named Frances Gripper. The pair travelled around Scotland and Paris together, and McBey produced several paintings of Gripper. In this exquisite portrait (c.1929) McBey expresses the intensity of his passion in the frenzied brushwork and rich raspberry palette, which is reflected across Gripper’s robe and to her flushed cheeks and lips. McBey conveys her beauty and impish personality, as well as the intimacy shared by the couple in her easy bearing, steady eye contact and self-assured smile. McBey proposed to Gripper in 1929, but she returned to her fiancé in the States. She would continue to preoccupy McBey’s thoughts for years to come.