Lot 60
JOHN QUINTON PRINGLE (1864-1925)
'ELSIE', CIRCA 1897
Auction: 15 June 2011 at 12:00 BST
Description
three quarter length watercolour portrait miniature on ivory
Dimensions
9cm x 7cm
Footnote
Exhibited: Scottish Arts Council Exhibition 'John Quinton Pringle', 1981, Case II, c)
Note: This miniature depicts Elsie Newbery, daughter of Fra Newbery, the director of Glasgow School of Art from 1885 - 1918, and appears to be an early commission for Pringle. Newbery commissioned Pringle to paint both his daughters, Elsie and Mary (Newbery Sturrrock), in miniature and such was his admiration of Pringle's work he is noted to have written;
"...I have always regarded Pringle with a peculiar and sustained pleasure, and have treasured to myself my thoughts about his work and its accomplishments...My wife and I with Pringle's fellow students, Mr and Mrs Charles Rennie Mackintosh, early realised that somewhat of a genius was among us...My wife and I gave him his first commission and the results achieved by work with our smallest youngsters on many a Sunday morning, are among our most valued modern possessions..."
His connection to Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his circle was lasting, and both Newbery and Mackintosh helped him to have his work shown at the Vienna Secessionist Exhibition of 1902 and the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in 1914.