Lot 164
GEORGE LESLIE HUNTER (SCOTTISH 1877-1931)
STILL LIFE WITH CHINESE BOWL AND FRUIT
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale: Lots 100 to 191 | 06 June 2024 at 6pm
Description
Signed, oil on board
Dimensions
68cm x 56cm (27in x 22in)
Provenance
Ian MacNicol, Glasgow
Footnote
Still Life with Chinese Bowl and Fruit shows how first-hand experience of the latest developments in French painting, particularly the work of Henri Matisse, encouraged Hunter to use a brilliance of colour and expressiveness of technique which earned him the sobriquet of ‘Scottish Colourist’.
When paintings of its ilk were shown in Alexander Reid’s gallery in Glasgow in 1925, the critic of the Glasgow Herald declared:
“If his colour schemes are sometimes daring they are always harmonious…presenting the essence of his subject with directness and vigour that is yet elastic, sprightly and joyous.” (Glasgow Herald, 17 December 1925)
Carefully composed upon a table-top positioned before a panelled door in his studio, Hunter has gathered together a faithful cast of still-life props. The titular famille rose bowl, made for the export market, is accompanied by a Chinese red-glaze (possibly flambe-glaze) bottle vase. They are shown amongst a range of fruits, whose varying colours and forms he clearly revels in, as well as a single pink rose, positioned so that the viewer can gaze directly into its very heart. A selection of textiles, from lace doily under the bowl, to drapery arranged over part of the table and hanging behind it, add to the feeling of sensual richness.
In 1923, it was remarked of Hunter that he “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); this could be used as a description of Still Life with Chinese Bowl and Fruit.
