GEORGE LESLIE HUNTER (SCOTTISH 1877-1931) ◆
STILL LIFE OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS IN A BLUE AND WHITE VASE
£42,700
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Session | 7th December 2023 at 18:00
Description
Signed, oil on panel
Dimensions
46cm x 30.5cm (18in x 12in)
Footnote
In a notebook which he kept during World War One, George Leslie Hunter wrote ‘Everyone must choose his own way and mine will be the way of colour.’ (quoted in T. J. Honeyman, Introducing Leslie Hunter, Faber and Faber Ltd, London, 1937, p.79). His success in achieving this aim is clear in works such as Still Life of Fruit and Flowers in a Blue and White Vase. It is a classic example of the paintings which Hunter made during the 1920s by which he truly emerged as a ‘Scottish Colourist’.
Hunter spent prolonged periods of time in Paris before and after the War, where he immersed himself in the work of the Post-Impressionists including Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, as well as the very latest developments in French painting. Henri Matisse emerged as a particular source of inspiration and the Fauve’s brilliant colour and vigorous brushwork are echoed in the present work.
As seen here, during this period Hunter preferred a table-top setting for his still-life compositions, often with fruit placed in the foreground, sometimes upon draped fabric. The tin-glazed albarello vase was one of a cast of favoured ceramics in which flowers of the season were arranged, giving on to the distinctive panelling of the background.
Altogether Still Life of Fruit and Flowers in a Blue and White Vase brims with the confidence and vibrancy of Hunter’s post-war professional development, which saw the critic of The Times describe his work thus: ‘Mr Hunter loves paint and the flatness of paint. He loads it on lusciously…His still lifes are strong and simple in design and gorgeous in colour…He makes the heart glad, like wine.’ (The Times, 6 January 1923)