Description
Signed and dated 1922, oil on canvas
Dimensions
49cm x 49cm (19.25in x 19.25in)
Footnote
Note: Stanley Cursiter was one of the most important figures of British art during the twentieth century. As Director of the National Galleries of Scotland, Cursiter introduced modernism to the country by bringing Roger Fry's seminal exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists to the capital in 1913, showing works of the Post-Impressionists and the Futurists to the country for the first time. He was also a keen supporter of the development of modern Scottish art and played an instrumental role in the creation of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
Born in Orkney in 1887, Cursiter moved to Edinburgh in 1904 to become an architect. However, drawing and painting was where he excelled and he soon completed his studies at the Edinburgh College of Art. After the First World War, his services in which resulted in him being awarded an O.B.E., Cursiter worked as an artist and completed numerous canvases from his luxurious apartment at 11 Royal Circus in Edinburgh.
The portrait shown here from 1922 and titled The Lace Frock, depicts one of the artist's favourite models, Poppy Low, standing to the left of a chair on which curtains and purple fabric are casually draped. The model's bobbed haircut portrays her as a modern woman and the ruffles on her lace dress demonstrate the painter's skill with the fabric. We see similarly fashionable depictions of Poppy Low in Cursiter's Roberta (Blackburn Museum and Gallery; 1921) and A Summer Night (Private Collection; 1923).